Prison officer - HMP Downview
HMP Downview, Sutton Ln, Sutton SM2 5PD
Starting salary: £43,290 (for a 39 hour week inc 20% unsocial)
City/Town: Croydon
Region: London
Vacancy type: Merit
This vacancy is open to female applicants only as an occupational requirement exception under Sch 9 of the Equality Act 2010. This post is not open to male applicants.
Sponsorship is not guaranteed, and applicants are responsible for ensuring they have, and can maintain, the appropriate right to work in the UK.
Skilled Worker visa sponsorship may be available for this role, subject to eligibility and in line with the UK Immigration Rules in force at the time of application. However, due to current immigration requirements and recruitment timescales, candidates who require Skilled Worker visa sponsorship are unlikely to be sponsored if applying to this campaign.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider their right to work in the UK carefully before applying. You can read more about Skilled Worker visas and eligibility criteria at gov.uk.
The Department will continue to comply with UK Immigration Rules applied in the UK and Civil Service.
Working in women’s prisons
HMP Downview is part of the Women’s Prison Group.
Working with women in custody has some specific challenges that you may not encounter in a male prison.
Women in custody have often had extremely difficult backgrounds. The majority of women in prison have experienced emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. This can lead to a lack of trust in staff.
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.
Someone like you
T’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, and everyone who works safe. You will be required to work various shifts and some weekends.
An extraordinary job
In this unique career, you’ll have the opportunity to carry out many different roles in any one day. One minute you’re a peacekeeper, the next you’re a counsellor or a teacher. You’ll work directly with prisoners in a unique environment, helping to protect the public and make a positive impact.
Find out more about this varied role and day-to-day life as a prison officer.
Job details
Eligibility
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 (see nationality requirements section below)
- as this is a physically active job, you will need to 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)
- For safety reasons, everyone training to be a prison officer needs a suitable standard of hearing (without the use of hearing aids)
- Whilst tattoos are permitted, including those that are visible, they must not be deemed as offensive, discriminatory, violent or intimidating in any way. Facial tattoos are generally not acceptable, except w this is 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; tfore, 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:
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UK nationals
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nationals of the Republic of Ireland
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nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
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https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
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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)
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individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
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Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules.
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
- effective decision-making
- 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 = £40,840 a year
- 39 hours a week = £43,290 a year
- 41 hours a week = £45,379 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.
Benefits
- 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
Read more about prison officer 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:
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communicating and influencing
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managing a quality service
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making effective decisions
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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). We use this assessment to understand how well you demonstrate the values needed to be an effective prison officer.
If you successfully pass the Values Based Assessment (VBA), you'll be eligible to progress to the Online Assessment Centre (OAC), w we'll assess the behaviours, strengths and abilities needed to become a Prison Officer.
As demand for assessment places can vary, candidates who achieve a higher pre-determined VBA score may be invited to the OAC sooner. This approach is applied consistently and fairly to all applicants within the campaign.
If you meet the required VBA pass mark but are not selected for an initial invitation, you will remain under consideration and may be invited to attend an OAC as additional assessment capacity becomes available.
If you were unsuccessful at the stage 2 online test in the last 6 months, you can now re‑apply.
The online assessment centre (OAC)
On successful completion of the online test, we will invite you to an online assessment centre w we test to see if you have the abilities, behaviours and strengths to be a prison officer.
After this you will be invited to provide a written response to 3 behaviour-based questions. We will explore your understanding of the prison officer role in a women’s prisons and why you are interested in the role.
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.
Read more about the application process.
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.
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.
Operational Support Grade Role
Our Online Assessment Centre (OAC), will not only assess you against the key criteria to become a prison officer but will also determine your suitability for appointment as an operational support grade OSG If following attendance at your OAC, you are unsuccessful in your application to become a prison officer, we may instead offer you an alternative role as an OSG.
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.
Please note 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.
Find out more about the medical assessment and fitness test on the application information centre
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of Civil Servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. If you feel the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you can raise a formal complaint in the following order:
1. Shared Services Connected Ltd: call 0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or email [email protected]
2. Ministry of Justice Resourcing
3. The Civil Service Commission.
Diversity & Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wver it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
Reasonable Adjustment Support
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 just one way, we do this.
Before completing online tests or attending an online assessment centre, it is essential to arrange reasonable adjustment support. Due to practical and logistical constraints, our assessors cannot accommodate requests on the day of the assessment centre. Tfore, we kindly request that you let us know in plenty of time if adjustments are required. This will help ensure the right support is in place for you when you need it.
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.
The jobholder must be able to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in English or (when specified in Wales) Welsh.
Allowance Details
Please refer to additional job description attachment
Additional Information
If you require any assistance, please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am-6pm) or e-mail [email protected]. Please quote the job reference 20553
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: 3rd September 2026
Supporting document 1
Band-3-PO-Safe-Decent-and-Secure-JD048-v8.0 (1).pdf – 150KB Opens in a new window
A Great Place to Work for Veterans
The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans
Redeployment Interview Scheme
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
What’s it really like to work as a prison officer?
Our interactive online activity will give you an insight into some of the situations prison officers may experience day-to-day in their work.
This is to help you decide whether the prison officer role is right for you, and your responses in the activity will not form part of your application.
You can access the activity using the Interactive Activity button
