202606: Prison Officer - HMP Berwyn in Wrexham

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

Location: Wrexham

Starting salary: £35,875 (for a 39 hour week in 20% unsocial)

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.

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.
• You’ll have the empathy, self‑confidence, great communication skills and resilience we want.
• You’ll take the time to build constructive, positive and professional relationships with prisoners.
• Teamwork plays a vital role in this environment, so you’ll need to be fully committed to supporting your colleagues.

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 (including eyesight and hearing tests)
• meet the required eyesight standard in both eyes (with and without corrective lenses)
• have a suitable standard of hearing (without the use of hearing aids)
• wear tattoos that are not offensive, discriminatory, violent, or intimidating; facial tattoos are generally not acceptable except for cultural, religious, or medical reasons

To work in a high security prison (category A) you must have been a resident in the UK for the last 3 years.

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.

Nationality requirements:

• 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

Successful applicants must ensure they have and maintain the legal right to live and work in the Civil Service and in the United Kingdom.

Essential skills:

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

Pay:

The initial training is 37 hours a week. After training, you can choose to work 37, 39 or 41 hours a week. Your annual salary will reflect your weekly hours.

• 37 hours a week = £33,746 a year
• 39 hours a week = £35,875 a year
• 41 hours a week = £38,003 a year

All salary figures quoted include any additional allowances that are applicable to the role/location. 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). Most prisons work with a changing shift pattern of 39 hours a week. 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 with employer contributions of 28.97%, cycle to work scheme, travel loans and other benefits.

Assessment process:

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 tests:

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).

Online assessment centre (OAC):

On successful completion of the online test, we will invite you to an online assessment centre where we test to see if you have the abilities, behaviours and strengths to be a prison officer. 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.

If your application is unsuccessful at the sift/assessment 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.

Medical and fitness:

Once we identify a vacancy for you, 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. We are not able to facilitate medical and fitness assessments outside of the UK. Applicants will be required to attend a UK‑based medical and fitness assessment centre to progress their application.

Disability confident employer:

As a disability confident employer, the MoJ is committed to ensuring that everyone can demonstrate their skills, talent, and abilities. Offering reasonable adjustment support to candidates when they apply for one of our jobs is one way we do this.

Applying for reasonable adjustment support has been made simple. Just select ‘yes’ in the application form when it asks if you think you might need it.

Closing date: 1st July 2026

Level of security checks required.