Passion is not enough: what matters to people working in addiction recovery services?

If you work in addiction services, you already know this: you didn’t choose this work for the money or for the applause.  You chose it because change matters to you. Because when recovery works, lives change. Families heal. Communities breathe again.

You chose it because you love helping others, but the question is, who’s helping you?

Too many of you are carrying a lot of responsibility inside systems that don’t always hold you in return.

Yes, this work is deeply meaningful. Yes, you care. But meaning isn’t enough when pay doesn’t cover the cost of living. When caseloads climb higher than safety allows. When clinical supervision is optional, and career pathways are unclear. All that wears on you.

These are the key messages captured from 2,179 voices in a recent IPSOS survey conducted with addiction recovery workforce across England.

Today, we’re going to look at what matters most to you, what’s getting in the way, and how we begin to build the conditions for this work to thrive.

What draws you in and keeps you here?

Having worked in various psychology related field, I must say, the addiction recovery field is magnetic, is like nothing else and it really pulled me in. I knew from the first few months that I don’t want to work in any other field for the rest of life. And honestly, I have never seen more passion and dedication anywhere else, as I have seen amongst people who work in addiction recovery services.

If there’s one thing that stood out in the survey, it’s this: people join this workforce for one reason above all others: to make a difference.

91% of respondents said that was the most important factor when they first stepped into this field. And it still is: 92% say it’s what keeps them here now. This factor becomes even more important for people with lived experience (either their own, or someone’s close to them).

The interesting nature of their works, and the ability to learn how to become better at helping people on their recovery journeys day-in, day-out is the next most common motivation for joining the sector and remained important to respondents in their roles now.

That speaks volumes about who you are. You’re not here for easy wins. You want to make a real, positive impact on people’s lives during a critical time of need. You’re here because you believe change is possible, even in the hardest circumstances.

And that belief shows up in the things people love about their work:

• Seeing people achieve what they thought was impossible.

• Watching someone take a first step toward a better life.

• Helping people feel seen, heard, and safe in a world that often overlooks them.

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And let’s not forget the value you place on each other. Good colleagues came up as one of the strongest reasons for coming to work – around a third of respondents said it’s what they like most about their job. In a sector where resources can feel scarce, solidarity and support from your peers remains abundant. That matters.

But as much as you love what you do, purpose alone can’t carry the weight

When we look at what challenges people face, a different picture emerges. These are the most common stress points reported in the survey:

• Pay that doesn’t reflect the role: 48% say low pay is a major challenge, that percentage jumps to 53% for those working in the voluntary sector and to 54% for those in unregulated roles (which forms most of the workforce). Younger people and those who had been in the workforce for 1 to 3 years were particularly likely to identify low pay as a challenge.  It is still incredibly difficult to recruit skilled and experienced staff if our salary scales cannot match those of statutory organisations such as local authority and NHS. Some of you even noted that starting salaries in addiction services are now close to supermarket pay, despite the complexity and risk of the work.

  
  

• Unrealistic demands: High caseloads came up again and again. Demands of services are often higher than workforce resource. 43% of frontline workers said they support too many people and this impact on their ability to make a real difference for their clients. Some reported 70, 80, even 90 clients at a time. Caseloads are continually rising, and the complexity of cases is increasing, meaning that workers are spending more time on individuals and the individuals are spending more time in services. This inevitably induces high stress levels and your own wellbeing being shattered… which leads us to the next point.

  
  

• Emotional exhaustion: 42% report experiencing burnout and/or compassion fatigue. For people with lived experience, that number rises to 46%. For staff living with a disability, it’s 57%. Experiencing emotional exhaustion is more common for people who have worked for more than three years in the field. This has as enormous impact on impact of staff sickness levels, which itself has a cascading effect overworked employees become progressively more stressed, which leads to them taking more sick days, which then leads to other staff having to manage their caseloads, which leads to stress amongst those employees, which results in more sick days, and so on.

• Uncertain futures: Job insecurity or too much organisational change, from retendering and short-term contracts to mergers and restructures, were identified as a serious challenge by a third (32%) of the respondents.  This uncertainty is amplified by a lack of clear career development opportunities and a high unmet need for funding and access to continuing professional development and training opportunities.

• Not feeling valued: One in four respondents said they don’t feel appreciated or understood by their employer, and many feel the sector’s contribution is not visible enough to other services and to society and not seen as priority in their local authority area.  This is even more apparent when we consider the lack of recognition of the addiction recovery roles as specialist professional roles.

  
  

A workforce that enters this field driven by purpose is now signalling fatigue, instability, and in some cases, despair. And here’s the most sobering data point: 28% are strongly considering leaving the sector in the next two years. Another 26% are thinking about it.

That’s more than half of the workforce at risk.

Sit with that for a moment.

Why This Matters…

When someone leaves, it’s not just a gap in the payroll and a vacancy. It’s client’s trust gone, disruption for teams and more weight on those who stay.

This isn’t an abstract problem. It’s happening right now. And the reasons aren’t a mystery.

You’re not asking for miracles. You’re not asking for more than is fair. You’re asking for what any serious profession should expect:

• Pay that reflects work intensity, dedication and responsibility.

• Caseloads that leave room for quality, not just quantity.

• Supervision that supports both yourself and the people you work with.

• Training that goes beyond one-off webinars to real career pathways.

• Flexibility and a decent work life balance.

• A seat at the table when change happens.

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It’s all about creating conditions where you can do the job you came here to do help people recover.

… and what can we do about it?

You’ve carried this long enough. Services can’t keep relying on your individual resilience to hold up structural gaps. If they do, the exodus will continue and with it, the erosion of recovery outcomes.

So where do we start?

1. Start with addressing pay and reward: It’s the number one reason people consider leaving. Aligning pay with responsibility isn’t just retention strategy, it’s fairness.

2. Fix caseloads before they break people: When staff can’t give quality time, clients lose hope. Workforce planning and recruitment must factor this in.

3. Make supervision non-negotiable: Right now, 40% of frontline workers get no clinical supervision at all. That’s not just a workforce issue; it’s a quality and safety issue.

4. Invest in development pathways: People want structured training, recognised qualifications, and progression that doesn’t require leaving frontline work.

5. Allow for flexibility: People value autonomy and, where possible, hybrid options, especially those balancing caring responsibilities. Introduce that in the way you design your services and then, your recruitment strategy.

6. Listen, consult, include: Too many staff feel left out of decisions that shape their daily reality. Change done to people, not with them, breeds burnout. Go to extreme lengths to embed a real co-production approach in your culture.

Behind every percentage in that report is a person holding up a system that too often forgets to hold them back.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them, or you lead them, manage them, commission their work. You know the pressures. You’ve felt the strain. And you’ve wondered if there’s a better way.

There is.

Once a week, this space will bring you one idea to make the work lighter, the systems stronger and the outcomes real.

Practical tools, evidence-based insights and honest reflection you can use in your work without breaking yourself or your team.

Because you deserve a system that supports you as firmly as you support the people you serve.