Ministry of Justice

Prison Officer Returners Scheme

Address: National

Salary: £33,583 - £44,258

City / Town: National

Region: National

Vacancy Type: Merit

If you are a former prison officer or youth justice worker with less than 5 years gap in service and completed foundation training and probation before leaving HMPPS, we would like you to consider re-joining us to support your former colleagues to keep prisons and the public safe. 

We can offer you a simplified return with no need to repeat the online tests, the online assessment centre or foundation training. However, if you would like to work in a women’s prison, you will be required to undertake the additional assessment for women’s prisons if you have not completed it previously. 

Once your eligibility for the scheme has been confirmed, you will be allocated straight to a vacancy as one becomes available and invited to the medical and fitness assessment. You will be required to undergo full pre-employment checks prior to returning. If vacancies are not immediately available at the prison(s) of your preference, you will be placed on a merit list and be priority consideration for vacancies as they arise.

If you are not yet ready to return, join our Prison Service Alumni Network to receive regular updates so you can apply when the time is right for you.

Eligibility  

You can apply to return as a prison officer if you:

• left HMPPS within the last 5 years
• previously worked as a prison officer at band 3, 4 or 5
• previously worked as a youth justice worker at band 3 or 4
• completed foundation training and your full probation period as a prison officer or a youth justice worker 

If you worked in another HMPPS role before becoming a prison officer or youth justice worker, you need to have:

• completed your full probation period in that role
• and have worked as a prison officer or youth justice worker for more than 12 months before leaving

The scheme is also open to former prison officers and youth justice workers who are currently working within the MoJ (excluding HMPPS) or other government departments.
HMPPS reserves the right to refuse reappointment to former prison officers and youth justice workers on grounds of previous poor attendance or performance. 

To be a prison officer you must:

• Meet the Civil Service Nationality requirements (see nationality requirements section below)

• Meet the required eyesight standard 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)
• Whilst tattoos are permitted, including those that are visible, they must not be deemed as offensive, discriminatory, violent, or intimidating in any way. Facial tattoos are generally not acceptable, except where this is for cultural, religious, or medical reasons.

 To work in a high security prison (category A) you must have been a resident in the UK for the last 3 years.

Application Process

You will be asked to provide up to three prisons where you would be willing to return to the prison officer role, with the option to select more if you wish. 

Once your eligibility for the scheme has been confirmed, you will be allocated straight to a vacancy as one becomes available and invited to the medical and fitness assessment. You will be required to undergo full pre-employment checks (which includes occupational health) prior to returning. If vacancies are not immediately available at the prison(s) of your preference, you will be placed on a merit list and be priority consideration for vacancies as they arise. 

If you are allocated to a women’s prison, you will need to complete the additional assessment for women’s prisons if you have not completed it previously. You will be asked to provide written responses to three behaviour-based questions, each of which requires a 250-word answer. These questions have been designed to explore your understanding of the prison officer role in a women’s prison and why you are interested in the role. For each question you will be asked to consider a situation you may face as a prison officer in a women’s prison. If you are unsuccessful, you will need to be re-allocated to an adult male prison.

You will return to full-time hours (starting at 37 hours a week), unless you request other hours when you apply. The availability of part-time and work-life balance arrangements depends on local staffing needs therefore cannot be guaranteed. Your request will need to be agreed with the prison you will be returning to once you have been allocated and before being given a provisional offer.     

Travel to work 

As you may recall, some of our prisons are situated in rural locations with limited public transport options; therefore, a driving licence and own transport is beneficial but is not an essential requirement of the role. Shift start and finish times are fixed so it is your responsibility to arrive on time. You need to carefully consider your transport options and travelling times before accepting the provisional offer. 

Pay

You will return as a Band 3 on pay point 2. 

If returning full-time, you will be given a contract for 37 hours a week. Once in post you can choose to increase to 39 or 41 hours a week. Your annual salary will reflect your weekly hours.

National:

• 37 hours a week (pay point 2) = £33,583 a year
• 39 hours a week (pay point 2) = £35,701 a year
• 41 hours a week (pay point 2) = £37,819 a year

Outer London:

• 37 hours a week (pay point 2) = £37,343 a year
• 39 hours a week (pay point 2) = £39,698 a year
• 41 hours a week (pay point 2) = £42,053 a year

Inner London:

• 37 hours a week (pay point 2) = £39,301 a year
• 39 hours a week (pay point 2) = £41,780 a year
• 41 hours a week (pay point 2) = £44,258 a year

All starting salary figures quoted are for 2024/25 and include the 20% unsocial hours allowance. Some establishments also receive a market supplement of £2,000 or £3,500 per year. You can find out more about this when your eligibility for the scheme has been confirmed. 

Prisons operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means you will have to cover various shift patterns that will include evenings, some nights, weekends and public holidays (these days are added to your holiday allowance). Most prisons work with a changing shift pattern of 39 hours a week.

You may also have opportunities to work additional paid hours.

Benefits

• 25 days’ annual holiday (rising to 30 days after 10 years’ service)
• Paid time off for public holidays and 1 extra privilege day
• Civil Service pension of up to 20% of your salary
• Cycle to work scheme, travel loans and other benefits

Read more about prison officer benefits.

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 can raise a formal complaint in the following order:

1. Shared Services Connected Ltd: call 0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or email Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com
2. Ministry of Justice Resourcing 
3. The Civil Service Commission.

Diversity & Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

Additional Information  

If you require any assistance, please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am-6pm) or e-mail MoJ-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com. Please quote the job reference 477.

The jobholder must be able to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in English or (when specified in Wales) Welsh.

Closing date: This campaign is due close on 31 December 2024 but may be extended.

Supporting document 1  

Band-3-PO-Safe-Decent-and-Secure-JD048-v8.0 (1).pdf – 150KB Opens in a new window

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. Candidates will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.

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