Prison Officer

Leicester, LE18 4WS
What’s in it for you?
Discover lots of information about the Prison Officer role here & try our Virtual Careers Assistant - PCO Careers Assistant
Is this the right career for you?
Our Prison Officers come with all different work & life experiences, what you’ve done before doesn’t matter, what matters is that you’re committed to making a difference to the lives of others. We’re focused on transferrable skills and behaviours such as communication, teamwork, resilience, and patience to help people - the rest you’ll learn during your 10-week training course and through our experienced colleagues.
As a Prison Officer, you’ll be at the forefront of ensuring the health, safety, and wellbeing of everyone around you. It’s a job where your contribution really counts as you work to give prisoners structure within their lives, encourage positive choices, and support them on their journey to rehabilitation. Day to day you’ll be involved in: Supervising prisoners in all aspects of prison wing activity. Overseeing work and education programmes, encouraging prisoners to participate. Operational matters such as prisoner headcounts, prison cell searching, security, and administrative processes. Managing prisoners who are at risk of self-harm.
We operate 24/7, all year round meaning you’ll cover shifts on days, evenings, weekends, nights, and bank holidays. We value the importance of work-life balance, we operate on a rota basis that allows you the flexibility to enjoy meaningful time off to do the things you enjoy & love.
**Preparing for your recruitment journey**:
You’ll be invited you to complete an online assessment. If you pass the initial online assessment, we will invite you to attend a virtual competency-based interview. Once you passed this assessment, we will invite you to the Prison for a visit and to complete a basic Maths and English assessment.
Once you’ve passed assessment, we’ll invite you to attend a 10-week Initial Training Course (ITC) at the Prison, which requires 100% attendance. This consists of 8 weeks classroom-based training and 2 weeks shadowing to give you a real taste of life on the job. The ITC provides high quality training, you’ll complete a Diploma in Custodial Care, First Aid and undergo Control and Restraint training.
**Why Serco? Meaningful and vital work**: Prison Officers are key to ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of prisoners, staff, and visitors in their prisons. More importantly they play a vital role in reducing reoffending rates amongst prisoners. A world of opportunity : Our prisons hold a huge amount of variety and opportunity, with Officers being able to progress into Ops Management or specialist services such as Psychology, Education, Health, or the Animal unit. Great people: Due to the investment in safeguarding and rehabilitation, our prisons are calmer and may be very different to what you might imagine, but you’ll receive all the training and advice you need from friendly and supportive colleagues.
Have at least two years remaining on your current visa to ensure sufficient time in the role.
Have lived in the UK for at least one year, as the vetting process requires a counter-signatory from a recognised professional who has known you for that duration.
For general right-to-work guidance, please visit the UK Home Office website.
About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services. We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.
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