NSW Quitline Supervisor & Counsellor
Employment Type: Full Time, Exempt (Until June 2027)
Position Classification: Health Professionals Award, Counsellor, Level 3
Remuneration: $112,396.00 - $116,038.00 per annum, plus superannuation and 17.5% leave loading
Hours Per Week: 38
Location: 1 Reserve Road, St Leonards, Sydney
Requisition ID: REQ600775
- Use your counselling and supervisory skills to provide high quality support to people to assist them quit smoking and/or vaping.
- Be part of an organisation that makes a difference in cancer control in NSW
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are encouraged to apply
Where you’ll be working
The Cancer Institute NSW is the NSW Government’s cancer control agency, established to lessen the impact of cancer across the state.
Working at the Cancer Institute NSW means joining a team of committed and dedicated staff who are proud to be a part of the Institute’s purpose of overseeing and accelerating the effectiveness of cancer control in NSW.
The Cancer Institute is a collaborative working environment that encourages diversity and inclusion in how we work and the way we work together. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are strongly encouraged to apply. Greater consideration will be given to suitable applicants, in order to improve access to employment and career opportunities (GSE Rule 26).
What you’ll be doing
The NSW Quitline Supervisor & Counsellor role provides oversight of counsellors on shift and is the first point of escalation for clients and counsellors. You will be required to provide telephone counselling to people who smoke and/or vape and informational support to carers and family members as well as health professionals about providing cessation care. This will include undertaking clinical assessment, treatment planning, delivering evidence-based counselling, referral to other services, and follow-up sessions to maintain client motivation and prevent relapse. Quitline counsellors work with people from diverse population groups and backgrounds with differing health conditions.
You will have demonstrated experience supervising counsellors as well as solid counselling experience, ideally to people who have substance dependence and/or mental health issues.
The Supervisor & Counsellor will be involved in monitoring and evaluating the service, as well as participating in the development and implementation of quality improvement activities, to ensure NSW Quitline continues to operate as an efficient evidence-based service, providing excellent quit smoking/vaping support and information to the people of NSW.
You will have excellent verbal and written communication skills along with your professional can-do-attitude, be a team player and solution oriented.
Successful applicants will be required to work 38 hours per week on a rotating roster. Quitline hours of service operation are 8.00 am to 8.00 pm weekdays and 8.30 am to 5.00 pm on Saturday’s. Rostered shift work across the hours of operation is a requirement of the role.
Quitline NSW provides a bilingual counselling service. We encourage bilingual applicants to apply, especially those who speak Arabic.
Remuneration/Benefits
In addition to base salary:
- 12% superannuation
- 4 weeks annual leave (plus 17.5% leave loading)
- 10 days sick leave
- 40 hours per week which include accrual of monthly Allocated Day Off (ADO) x 12 per year.
Access to:
- Generous Flexible Working practices
- Fitness Passport: a membership card for NSW government employees that gives you and your family unlimited access to 400+ gyms and other facilities at one low price.
- Novated car leasing arrangement
- Salary sacrificing to superannuation.
For your application to be considered
To submit your application, please provide:
- Your resume (maximum five pages)
- A covering letter addressing the Essential Requirements, as outlined in the Role Description
- A response to the Pre-screening questions, as outlined below.
Essential requirements
- Completed a least a 3-year bachelor's degree qualification in counselling, social work or psychology and a minimum of 3-years post clinical experience in counselling and be able to be registered with the peak body associated with qualified discipline.
- Demonstrated experience in providing mentoring and training counsellors in a clinical service.
- Demonstrated experience in identifying and implementing quality improvement opportunities for service improvement.
- High level verbal and written communication skills, including clinical documentation and client communication.
- Demonstrated ability to remain calm and execute services with confidence and patience in a high-pressure environment.
- Willingness to work a variety of shifts, including weekends and outside business hours, and flexibility to assist with backfilling shifts at times.
- All Quitline staff are required to be non-smokers. A former smoker or vaper must have been quit for at least six months.
- Experience in providing clinical services and advice in a call centre environment would be preferable but not essential.
If successful for interview candidates must bring original copies of essential qualifications to be sighted by the panel, and one copy to provide to panel.
Pre-screening questions
- Please provide an example of a situation where you provided supervision to a Counsellor around a complex or high-risk clinical issue. How did you assess the situation and determine a course of action? What was your approach to supervising the staff member, reducing a clinical risk, documenting outcomes and maintaining client engagement.
- Please outline your experience in developing and implementing clinical quality improvement initiatives?
Interested?
For more information:
- Click here for the Role Description
- Find out more about applying for this position
For more information about the Cancer Institute NSW please visit www.cancer.nsw.gov.au. For role related queries or questions contact Dr Kahren White at [email protected] or 02 8374 3596
Applications Close: Monday, 8th September 2025 at 11:59PM
All Cancer Institute roles are based at St Leonards, Sydney, and candidates are required to be Sydney based.
The CORE+4 Values define what is important to the Cancer Institute NSW and our employees.
Our values are: Collaboration, Openness, Respect, Empowerment, Strategic, Supportive, Innovative and Flexible.
The Cancer Institute NSW is unable to offer salary packaging. Salaries will be negotiated commensurate to experience and qualifications of the role.
The Cancer Institute NSW supports flexible working practices for all employees and welcomes applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from diverse cultural backgrounds and people with disabilities. Stepping Up aims to assist Aboriginal job applicants by providing information about applying for roles in NSW Health. For more information please visit www.steppingup.health.nsw.gov.au.
Please indicate if you have any accessibility requirements in your application or speak with the contact person should you be called for an interview. We provide reasonable adjustment for people with a disability during the recruitment process and during their employment.
To be eligible for permanent appointment to a position in NSW Health, you must have Australian citizenship or permanent Australian residency.
To submit your application please visit https://jobs.health.nsw.gov.au/cinsw
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