202205: First Time Prison Officer Relocation Scheme
First time prison officer – relocation scheme
Applying for your first prison officer role and happy to relocate? Get your career off to a great start, gaining valuable experience working at one of our larger prisons and earn up to £8k more than you would if you applied direct to the prison you’re allocated to under this scheme.
Move away to join a prison that’s 75 minutes or more from where you currently live and not only will you benefit from a greater variety of experience than you would working at a smaller prison, you will also get higher take-home pay, your accommodation costs paid for up to 3 years, and a paid monthly trip home – all up to £8k a year.
Choose 3 or more prisons you’d like to work at and, wherever possible, we will aim to find you a role at one of these. You will be allocated to a prison that has the most need for prison officers at the time.
You are only eligible for this scheme if you are applying for your first prison officer position – not if you’re looking to move from one prison to another.
https://prisonandprobationjobs.gov.uk/prison-officer/first-time-prison-officer-relocation-scheme/
What’s on offer?
- You will benefit from higher take-home pay than is available via our standard prison officer recruitment process.
- We will pay your accommodation costs (up to £659 per month in London or up to £589 elsewhere) for up to 3 years.
- You will be able to reclaim the cost of a monthly trip home by public transport.
- After 2 years you can decide whether to stay at the prison permanently or move to one that’s nearer to your home.
As the prisons on the First time prison officer – relocation scheme list have an ongoing need for prison officers, you should be able to start your paid training sooner than you would if you applied via our standard application process.
You’ll also benefit from Prison officer rewards & benefits | HM Prison & Probation Service and career progression opportunities.
https://prisonandprobationjobs.gov.uk/prison-officer/life-as-a-prison-officer/.
How to apply
- The online application begins with important details such as your National Insurance number and right to work in the UK.
- You will have an opportunity to choose 3 or more prisons you’d like to work at, in order of preference. You will then be invited to complete stage 1 of the online tests to see if you have the basic judgement and numerical skills expected of a prison officer.
- If you are successful, we will invite you to stage 2 of the online tests to see if you have the right natural strengths and preferences.
During the recruitment process you will be assessed on the behaviours, strengths and abilities you need to become an effective prison officer. These include:
- communicating and influencing
- managing a quality service
- making effective decisions
- and caring
Your natural strengths are assessed to find out what motivates and energises you. We will also assess your numerical, written English and spoken English abilities.
The online assessment centre
If you pass the online test, we will invite you to an online assessment centre.
We test to see if you have the abilities, behaviours and strengths to be a prison officer.
Once you’ve successful completed the online assessment centre, we will invite you to complete a medical and fitness test. This will cover an eyesight test, hearing test and basic health screening, including a blood pressure check.
We will tell you what to expect and bring before the day.
Job details
Eligibility
To become a prison officer, you will need to:
- be at least 18 years old
- have the right to work in the UK
- be reasonably fit and able to pass our fitness test
- have good eyesight in both eyes (both with and without corrective lenses)
For safety reasons, everyone training to be a prison officer needs a suitable standard of hearing (without the use of hearing aids).
To work in a high security prison (category A) you must have been a resident in the UK for the last 3 years.
Essential skills
You don’t need qualifications to become a prison officer. Personal qualities are more important. You need to show:
- communication and influencing skills
- commitment to quality
- effective decision-making
- care and understanding
Pay
Your pay will depend on which prison you work at and your weekly shift hours. The figures below are based on a 39 hour week (you will start on a 37 hour contract until you have completed your initial training. You can then choose to increase your hours to 39 or 41 hours a week.)
Prison
Location
Salary
HMP Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HMP Berwyn
Wrexham, North Wales
£27,427
Bicester, Oxfordshire
£30,927
HMP Elmley
Isle of Sheppey, Kent
£29,427
Yorkshire
£24,427*
HMP Gartree
Leicestershire
£24,427*
Suffolk
£29,427
Suffolk
£24,427*
Worcestershire
£24,427*
Norfolk
£27,427
HMP Onley
Rugby, Warwickshire
£24,427*
Dorset
£24,427*
HMP Stocken
Rutland
£24,427*
Lichfield, Staffordshire
£24,427*
HMP Swaleside
Isle of Sheppey, Kent
£29,427
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
£29,427
Dorset
£24,427*
London
£32,044
Woodbridge, Suffolk
£24,427
HMP Wayland
Thetford, Norfolk
£27,427
Cambridgeshire
£27,427
Hampshire
£29,427
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
£30,927
*These figures include a recruitment and retention payment of £1,500 each year, which will be paid at 12 monthly intervals – not as part of your monthly salary.
You will also get:
- your accommodation costs paid (up to £659 per month in London or up to £589 elsewhere) for up to 3 years.
- the cost of a monthly trip home by public transport.
Prison officer benefits
- 25 days’ annual holiday (rising to 30 days after 10 years’ service)
- paid time off for public holidays and 1 extra privilege day
- one of the best pension schemes in the country
- rental deposit loans
- cycle to work scheme, travel loans and other benefits
https://prisonandprobationjobs.gov.uk/prison-officer/rewards-and-benefits/.
Training and career progression
You will start your prison officer career by completing a paid https://prisonandprobationjobs.gov.uk/prison-officer/apprenticeships/. Taking 12 to 18 months to complete, this professional qualification will give you the specialist skills you need to become expert at your job.
You will learn and practise all the key skills and behaviours that are vital to the prison officer role, including:
- how to look after people in custody
- search and security procedures
- de-escalation techniques
Job offers: pass vacancy
This is a pass job vacancy. If you are successful at the online assessment centre you will be offered a job immediately if there is a position available.
If there are no vacancies, you will be placed on a reserve list and will be offered a job as soon as there is a vacancy.
Your successful pass from assessment centre will be valid for 12 months if you want to apply for vacancies at other prisons.
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of Civil Servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. If you feel the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles, you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order:
Shared Service Connect Ltd: call 0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or email Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com
Ministry of Justice Resourcing: email resourcing-services@justice.gov.uk
We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging.
Disability support
As a Disability Confident employer, the Ministry of Justice is committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. We can offer reasonable adjustments to help with the online tests and online assessment centre.
If you require any assistance, please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am-6pm) or email MoJ-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com
If you require any assistance please call 0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am-6pm) or e-mail MoJ-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com. Please quote the job reference 59384.
Closing date 28th June 2022.
A Great Place to Work for Veterans
The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans
Redeployment Interview Scheme
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
What’s it really like to work as a prison officer?
Our interactive online activity will give you an insight into some of the situations prison officers may experience day-to-day in their work.
This is to help you decide whether the prison officer role is right for you, and your responses in the activity will not form part of your application.
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
· UK nationals
· nationals of the Republic of Ireland
· nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
· individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
· Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
This Vacancy is closed to applications.