Prison Library Officer in Lancaster

Salary £27,269 - £31,067 per annum | Permanent, Part Time, 32 hours per week | Lancaster Farms Prison Library

Are you a confident leader with a passion for reading and community engagement? We are looking for a friendly, proactive, and digitally confident individual to lead the team at HMP Lancaster Farms Prison Library. Lancashire Libraries are a vital service that provide welcoming, inclusive spaces where people of all ages can connect, learn and feel safe. We are proud to offer access to quality resources, knowledgeable staff, and a supportive environment for everyone.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Managing day-to-day operations of the library.
• Planning and delivering a wide range of events (e.g. author events, Reading Groups, Storybook Dads).
• Supporting customers with legal information (e.g. PSIs, PSOs).
• Building partnerships within the prison and with external partners.
• Monitoring performance and ensuring service excellence.

You may occasionally work at other library locations and some lone working may be required.

Our Ideal Applicant:

• A confident and supportive leader.
• Friendly, approachable, and passionate about reading.
• Digitally confident and able to help others navigate online resources.
• A great communicator with strong problem-solving skills.
• Comfortable working with a diverse range of people, including orderlies, prisoners, prison staff and community partners.

Working as a Lancashire County Council employee within a prison environment brings additional responsibilities in terms of the requirement to obey prison rules and procedures. This responsibility requires you to demonstrate and enforce an acceptable standard of behaviour to ensure the safety of staff and prisoners within the library. HMP Lancaster Farms will provide contract staff with the appropriate prison training.

Why Join Us?

At Lancashire County Council, you will have the opportunity to shape a career path that suits you, with access to personal and professional qualifications, coaching, and mentoring. This is the place to build the career you’ve always wanted.

In return for your passion and expertise, we offer a generous benefits package, including:

• A competitive salary and access to the Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contributions.
• 26 days of annual leave (rising with length of service), plus 8 bank holidays and 2 additional statutory days. You’ll also have the option to purchase additional leave each year.
• Access to our staff discount scheme in partnership with Vivup, offering savings with a wide range of UK retailers—from weekly groceries to white goods and vehicles.

Pre-employment Checks

Prison recruits are required to go through pre-employment screening which includes security vetting as part of their application process. As a prison library officer, you are working in a position of trust. Security vetting plays a key role in assessing an individual’s integrity and so has a strong link to public trust and confidence within HMPPS.

The vetting process considers several factors. If you are in doubt about whether you need to disclose something or not, it’s best to include it. You will be asked to provide information on:

• Yourself (personal information, financial information, police information, criminal history)
• Your family (parents, parents’ partners, siblings, partner(s), children)
• Co-residents
• Associations that may cause a conflict of interest with your role or the prison service.

Prison staff vetting also includes:

• Background checks across police information systems on you, your family and other associates
• Credit reference checks (to make sure money problems don’t make you vulnerable to blackmail or corruption)
• Social media and Open-Source checks (these are checks on content about you that’s publicly available on the internet to ensure there’s nothing linked to you that could undermine public trust and confidence in the prison service)
• Other government and overseas agency checks.

You may also be required to complete a National Security Vetting application with the United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) depending on the prison you are applying to work.

Nationality requirements

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)
• 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

If you have been out of the country for a significant period (usually up to one year) and maintained your UK residency you may still be considered for vetting clearance.

Candidates must be able to provide correct and up to date documentation when requested during the application process.

If you would like an informal discussion or any further information, please contact Nicola Walmsley. All shortlisted candidates will be invited, pre-interview, to visit HMP Lancaster Farms and the library. Acceptance is not mandatory; however, we do strongly advise candidates to take up this opportunity. We reserve the right to close a vacancy early, before the closing date, if we receive sufficient applications.