HMP Neurodiversity Support Manager; NSM

Job Summary

This is a Management job in an establishment. The post holder will be responsible for leading on supporting prisoners with needs arising from neurodivergence.

• Focus on improving and ensuring that the quality of neurodiversity support and provision is at least good and moving towards outstanding. This includes assessment of quality to inform the prison education, skills and work improvement plan which can be applied across various learning channels, e.g. classroom, industries, work areas, workshops, gym etc.
• Develop and maintain a neurodiversity needs strategy for the prison, incorporating and working with key stakeholders, including the Head of Education Skills and Work (HoESW), Learning and Skills Manager (LSM), Head of Reducing Reoffending (HoRR), provider education and/or curriculum managers, Employment lead, New Futures Network (NFN) broker, Prison Work Coach, Head of Offender Management Unit, libraries, Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG), activities, gym, industries manager, key worker.
• Develop and maintain systems and structures to ensure that the delivery of all Education, Skills and Work activity is appropriate to all cohorts. Recommend and test related solutions leading into an improvement plan. Work with Senior Management Team (SMT) to implement, maintain, invest and update it as necessary.
• Manage the collection and collating of data on neurodiversity at local level. Continually analyse and evaluate current practice for how neurodiversity provision is tailored to the needs of a wide range of prisoners, including those who are hard to reach, vulnerable prisoners, and those for whom English is not their first language.
• Track the progress of neurodivergent prisoners in education, learning and work (including kitchen, horticulture, waste management industries/workshops, wing work and orderly/peer roles), analyse data and identify any participation and achievement gaps and address these.
• Case manage prisoners who require additional support to access education, skills and work opportunities within the prison to ensure it is both appropriate and helpful. Neurodiversity related information is shared, appropriately and lawfully, with relevant prison teams, e.g. PEF, CIAG, LSM, AM Health Care.
• Ensure that the needs of neurodivergent prisoners are considered in terms of availability of activities, appropriate adaptations and reasonable adjustment as required and sufficient places by working with the LSM, activities and industries managers.
• Raise awareness of Neurodiversity in the prison. Upskill the workforce to support a whole‑prison approach to supporting prisoners with neurodivergence using full staff briefings, internal communications and 1‑2‑1 processes.
• Work with key stakeholders to ensure that neurodivergent prisoners receive the support and advice that they need to help them prepare for a release into the community.

• Experience of operating in a specialist neurodiversity role.
• Experience of working within the Special Educational Needs / Additional Learning Needs and Disabilities field.
• Detailed knowledge of OFSTED/Estyn's EIF (Education Inspection Framework) and further education and skills criteria.
• Substantial teaching experience that has developed a range of strategies for developing accessible and appropriate resources to match the specific learning needs of individuals / cohorts of learners.
• History of developing highly effective partnerships with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Worked in a complex multi‑agency operational setting to achieve mutual outcomes.
• Experience of setting goals and achieving targets.
• Experience of implementing change, preferably within an educational setting.
• Evidence of innovation and impact in an educational context.

• PGCE, Cert Ed or Level 5 in Education and Training.
• Level 4 Certificate in Supporting the learning of learners with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) / Additional Learning Needs (ALN).
• Alternatively, extensive experience working with people with complex needs in a neurodiversity specialist role in a custodial setting or other multi‑disciplinary environment.

• Level 4 TAQA qualifications in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes or equivalent, Level 7 Diploma in Assessing and Teaching Learners with Dyslexia, Specific Learning Differences and Barriers to Literacy.

• Strong written and excellent verbal and non‑verbal communication skills.
• Knowledge and use of the Microsoft suite of packages particularly Word, Excel, Project and PowerPoint.

An ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence through the medium of English or (where specified in Wales) Welsh.