Prison Officer - Relocation Opportunity to Bicester (Oxfordshire)

Date published: 29-Apr-2026

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

AO Job ID: 17099

Descriptions & requirements:

• National - First time prison officer recruitment scheme
• Skilled Worker visa sponsorship may be available for this role, subject to eligibility and in accordance with the UK Immigration Rules in force at the time of application.

Applying for your first prison officer role and happy to relocate? Get your career off to a great start, gaining valuable experience working at one of our busier prisons. Move away to join a prison that’s 75 minutes or more from where you currently live and not only will you benefit from a greater variety of experience than you would working at a smaller prison, but you will also get higher take-home pay, your accommodation costs paid for up to 23 months, and a paid monthly trip home.

Choose 3 or more prisons you’d like to work at and, wherever possible, we will aim to find you a role at one of these. You will be allocated to a prison that has the most need for prison officers at the time. After 23 months you will be deployed to a prison within daily travelling distance of your permanent address.

What’s on offer?

• We will pay your accommodation costs (up to £750 per month) for up to 23 months.
• You will be able to reclaim the cost of a monthly trip from your deployed prison to the prison closest to your home.
• You will also be paid a recruitment and retention bonus of £1500 after the first 12 month and 23-month period.
• After 23 months you will be able to transfer to a prison in daily travelling distance of your permanent address.

As the prisons on First time prison officer recruitment scheme list have an ongoing need for prison officers, you should be able to start your paid training sooner than you would if you applied via our standard application process.

An extraordinary job. Done by someone like you. Prison officers protect the public and help make an impact on prisoners’ lives. If you have the integrity, skills and strength of character we’re looking for, this fast-paced role could be the start of a successful career.

No two shifts or situations are ever the same. And, as you gain experience, you’ll find a range of opportunities to grow and develop into.

Someone like you:

There’s no such thing as a typical prison officer. Our officers come from different walks of life, just like the offenders they work with. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, have worked in retail, the armed forces, or just feel like you’re a natural people person, you’ll have the empathy, self-confidence, great communication skills and resilience we want.

No matter the challenge, you’ll take the time to build constructive, positive and professional relationships with prisoners who could be at the lowest point in their lives. Teamwork plays a vital role in this environment, so you’ll need to be fully committed to supporting your colleagues and understand the importance of acting as one team to keep the prison, prisoners and everyone who works here safe.

You will be required to work various shifts and some weekends.

To become a prison officer, you will need to:

• be at least 18 years old at the point you commence employment
• meet the Civil Service Nationality requirements
• pass a medical and fitness assessment as part of the application process
• meet the required eyesight standard in both eyes (both with and without corrective lenses)
• have a suitable standard of hearing (without the use of hearing aids)

Travel to Work:

Some prison establishments 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 (unless specified). Please note that shift start, and finish times are fixed, and it is your responsibility to get to and from your place of work on time for the start of your shift. Please carefully consider the location of this vacancy and your transport options before applying.

Nationality requirements:

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• 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 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

You don’t need qualifications to become a prison officer. Personal qualities are more important. You need to show:

• communication and influencing skills
• commitment to quality care and understanding

Your pay will depend on which prison you work at and your weekly shift hours. The figures below are based on a 37 hour contract which you will remain on until you have completed your initial training. You can then choose to increase your hours to 39 or 41 hours a week. Salaries quoted are based on 37 hours per week including unsocial hours allowance.

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). You may also have opportunities to work additional paid hours.

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.

During the recruitment process you will be assessed on the behaviours, strengths and abilities you need to become an effective prison officer. These include:

• communicating and influencing
• managing a quality service
• caring

Your natural strengths are assessed to find out what motivates and energises you. We will also assess your numerical, written English and spoken English abilities.

Online Test:

Once you have completed your initial application form, you will be invited to complete stage 1 of the online test, to see if you have the basic judgement and numerical skills expected of a prison officer. If you are successful, we will invite you to the stage 2 online test (values-based assessment).

The online assessment centre (OAC):

If you pass the online test, we will invite you to an online assessment centre. We test to see if you have the abilities, behaviours and strengths to be a prison officer. Once you’ve successfully completed the online assessment centre, we will invite you to complete a medical and fitness test. This will cover an eyesight test, hearing test and basic health screening, including a blood pressure check.

The rewards aren’t all you’ll gain from a role in the Prison Service. There’s the sense of achievement you feel when you’ve helped a prisoner to get their life back on track – the kind of experience you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Job offers: merit vacancy:

This is a merit job vacancy. If you are successful at the online assessment centre, you will be added to a merit list based on your score. When all applicants have completed the assessment centre, the prison will make job offers to individuals with the highest scores first when positions become available. You can stay on the merit list for 12 months. After this, you’ll need to apply again.

Your successful pass from assessment centre will be valid for 12 months if you want to apply for vacancies at other prisons. If your application is unsuccessful at the sift/Interview stage, a six month waiting period will be applied during which time you will not be allowed to submit any further applications for prison officer positions.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles. We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging.

Disability support:

As a Disability Confident employer, the Ministry of Justice is committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. We can offer reasonable adjustments to help with the online tests and online assessment centre.

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: 13th May 2026

Level of security checks required.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.