Operational Support Grade - HMP Whitemoor ( Prison Support Role) in Peterborough

Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share, Flexible Working

Location: March/ Wisbech/ Peterborough/ Cambridge

Number of jobs available: 6

Job ID: 18762

Responsibilities:

As part of our prison support team, your work will be varied and help to keep the prison moving. This is an active role where you will be doing a range of physical tasks. These can include lifting and carrying, plus long periods of standing and walking. There will also be periods of lone working whilst undertaking tasks on both day and night shifts. You will not always be in contact with prisoners; it depends on the prison you work in. You will have full training and a supportive team by your side.

Key Tasks:

• Ensuring the secure entry and exit of staff, visitors, 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.
• Walking around the prison site patrolling and searching perimeter fence areas.

Control Room:

• Operating the prison radio system.
• Monitoring CCTV, ensuring all suspicious activities are reported.

Visits:

• Welcoming visitors on arrival.
• Escorting visitors if needed.
• Monitoring and logging mail into the prison.
• Reporting contraband items, preserving evidence where needed.
• Ensuring cell doors are locked and all prisoners are safely accounted for.

Reception:

• Photographing prisoners.
• Processing prisoners’ property and parcels coming into the prison.
• Sometimes supervising prisoners.
• Exchanging clothing and property.
• Helping prison officers escort prisoners around the prison.
• Walking around the prison delivering and collecting food treadles, or sometimes using an electric tug vehicle.

Driving Duties:

• Transporting prisoners and their escorts to their destination.
• 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.

Procedures and Protocol:

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

Qualifications:

You do not need any qualifications to do this job. Helping to keep a prison running smoothly and safely requires good judgement, common sense, responsibility and above all teamwork. CTC (Counter‑Terrorism Check) is required for HMP Whitemoor. You must have been a resident in the UK for the last 3 years, and you may need to provide documentation showing continuous post‑2023 UK residency.

Travel to Work:

Some prison establishments are rural and have limited public transport. A driving licence and own transport are beneficial but not essential unless specified. Shift start and finish times are fixed and it is your responsibility to arrive on time.

Benefits:

• Annual leave: 25 days on appointment, increasing to 30 days after 10 years’ service (pro‑rata).
• 9 days bank, public and privilege holidays.
• Paid Level 2 apprenticeship in customer service.
• Generous Civil Service pension scheme (choice of two pension schemes).
• Season ticket loans, retail discounts, an Employee Assistance Programme, a Cycle to Work scheme.
• Unsocial hours allowance included in salary (20%).

Hours & Shifts:

You will work an average of 37 hours per week, including night shifts, evenings, weekends, and bank/public holidays on a rolling shift pattern. Shift times vary by establishment and are discussed in interview.

Eligibility:

• 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 with settled or pre‑settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members who have made a valid application for settled or pre‑settled status
• 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

Legal Statements:

We are committed to improving equality in the Civil Service and do not discriminate on any grounds.