Operational Support Grade - HMP Prison Support

Responsibilities

As part of the prison support team, your work will be varied and will help keep the prison running smoothly. The role involves a range of physical tasks, including lifting, carrying, long periods of standing and walking, and lone working on day and night shifts.

• • Ensuring secure entry and exit of staff, visitors and vehicles.
• • Carrying out searches of staff, prisoners, visitors and vehicles.
• • Walking around the prison site to escort vehicles and contractors.
• • Issuing and collecting staff keys and radios.
• • Patrolling and searching perimeter fence areas.

• • Operating the prison radio system.
• • Monitoring CCTV and reporting all suspicious activity.

• • Welcoming visitors upon arrival.
• • Escorting visitors when required.
• • Monitoring and logging mail entering the prison.
• • Reporting contraband items and preserving evidence where required.
• • Ensuring cell doors are locked and all prisoners are safely accounted for.

• • Photographing prisoners.
• • Processing prisoners’ property and parcels entering the prison.
• • Supervising prisoners when necessary.
• • Exchanging clothing and property.
• • Assisting prison officers in escorting prisoners around the prison.
• • Delivering and collecting food trollies, and sometimes using an electric tug vehicle.

• • Transporting prisoners and their escorts to destinations.
• • Collecting mail from the local sorting office, which may involve lifting heavy sacks.
• • Monitoring the prison’s Personal Identification Number (PIN) phone system.
• • Maintaining the log of PIN phone requests from prisoners.

• • Understanding and conforming to national and local policies, and responding appropriately to incidents and emergencies.

The role requires an average of 37 hours per week, including night, evening, weekend, and bank/public holiday shifts on a rolling shift pattern. Bank and public holidays are added to the holiday allowance.

No formal qualifications are required; however, good judgement, common sense, responsibility, teamwork and confidence in English (and Welsh where specified for work in Wales) are essential.

• • Annual leave: 25 days on appointment, increasing to 30 days after 10 years of service (pro‑rated).
• • 9 bank, public and privilege holidays.
• • Access to a paid Level 2 customer‑service apprenticeship.
• • Access to the generous Civil Service pension scheme.
• • Season ticket loans, retail discounts, an Employee Assistance Programme and a Cycle‑to‑Work scheme.
• • Salary inclusive of a 20% unsocial hours working allowance.

CTC (Counter Terrorism Check) is required for all successful applicants. Successful clearance also requires a 23‑point Higher Level 2 vetting and proof of UK residency for the last 3 years.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• • Nationals of the Republic of Ireland and the Commonwealth countries with the right to work in the UK.
• • Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and their family members with settled or pre‑settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
• • Individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme 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.

The Final date to receive applications is 25 June 2026.