Tobacco Dependency Advisor

Tobacco Dependency Advisor

The closing date is 22 January 2026

Do you want to save more lives?

Would you like to be part of the biggest national drive in reducing health inequalities? We are looking for Tobacco Dependency Advisors to help the Worcestershire inpatient service, helping patients to quit smoking with ongoing support post discharge through our Community Pharmacy Advanced Services.

The NHS Long Term Plan has committed to offering all people admitted to hospital who smoke NHS funded tobacco treatment by 2023/24. It recognises that tobacco dependency is aclinical condition that prematurely kills at least half of people who smoke.

Rather than a lifestyle choice, smoking is an addiction that can be successfully treated, significantly improving patients morbidity and mortality.

No prior experience of working in smoking cessation or with people with addictions is necessary. Full training will be given.

Led by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the tobacco dependency service will serve adult inpatients, including those with serious mental illness, on behalf of Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health & Care Trust. With two hubs located where the majority of referrals to the service are expected, at Worcester Royal and Alexandra Hospitals, and spoke service provision for all other inpatient sites. A clear driving licence, own vehicle with insurance covering business travel, is therefore essential.

Working as a single team, the tobacco dependency service will provide a single point of access for all referrals, with monitoring via a single patient tracker list. The service will operate weekdays Monday to Friday, however as with all NHS services and once the service is fully established, there may be an aspiration for weekend provision.

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Our workforce is nearly 6,800 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

• Best services for local people
• Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
• Best use of resources
• Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

General Duties:

Communication and working relationships

To provide sensitive information, including the risks of smoking to inpatients, their relatives and carers, in an empathetic and reassuring manner.

To maintain communication, service provision and support to all inpatients in order to maximise the likelihood of successful cessation.

To maintain effective communication and working relationships within the service, wider teams, and other healthcare professionals.

Work with patients, their relatives and carers, to change their behaviour to improve their health.

Act as a smoke free champion and promote the Trusts Smokefree policy interventions.

Provide advice and support to ward staff, including reinforcing the principles of giving Very Brief Advice and onward referral of patients to the tobacco dependency service.

Responsibility for Patients

Without direct supervision, provide behavioural support to patients, working with their relatives and carers, and multidisciplinary teams, to assess dependence and develop individualised patient tobacco dependency treatment (or temporary abstinence) plans in accordance with the Trusts standard operating procedures and related policies.

Provide information to service users about stopping smoking, minimizing harm from tobacco, and health-related issues in line with best guidance and local protocols, to enable them to make informed choices about their care, which is safe and underpinned by evidence.

Complete robust discharge planning to meet the needs of the patients ongoing stop smoking support: including arranging onward referral to the Community Pharmacy Advanced Services; agreeing follow-up appointments; providing contact information; co‑ordinating uninterrupted supply of…