Senior Prison Custody Officer

Job Introduction

Sodexo have a fantastic opportunity for Senior Prison Custody Officers to join our team at HMP Northumberland. 

The role of Senior Prison Custody Officer is responsible for supervising and managing a designated area, providing mentoring and support to prison custody officers, ensuring the area of responsibility provides a safe and secure environment for staff, visitors and prisoners, whilst treating everyone with a fair, consistent approach. 

To be successful in this position you should have previous experience working within a prison, clear leadership skills and be able to act as a role model to both other staff and prisoners.

For more information on Sodexo Careers please visit Sodexo Careers and Careers in Justice

Role Responsibility

• Supervise and support Prison Officers with actions arising from Standard Audit, Her Majesty Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) Action Plans, Managing Quality of Prison Life (MQPL) surveys including local self audit action plan.
• Support and create a safe working environment for staff, prisoners and visitors by adhering to Health and Safety legislation and meet KPIs where relevant.
• To manage and be responsible for the work carried out by a group of Prison Custody Officers in a specific area of the establishment, there may be also be responsibility for OSO’s management.   
• To line manage staff in line with policy, utilising the resources available on SodexoNet and at the PeopleCentre in order to support and manage staff appropriately and reasonably at all times
• To achieve key performance indicators as directed by line manager.
• Mentor staff including new recruits and arrange for other staff to provide mentoring support as required 
• Co-ordinate and collate data concerning their area of work.
• Prepare and deliver team briefings and handovers as appropriate.
• Supervise and support Prison Officers and other staff when dealing with prisoner applications and other issues raised by prisoners.
• Contribute to the development and application of local policy, procedures and practice.
• Contribute to staff appraisals, feeding relevant performance information to Line Managers
• To lead, support and develop staff.
• Ensure compliance with the Local Security Strategy.
• Deploy staff resources in line with profiles.
• Comply and implement Safer Custody policies.  
• Promotion of a positive and professional culture.
• Demonstrates and actively promotes pro-social role modelling
• Be responsible for taking command of all incidents from the Communications Room or Command Suite as appropriate until the arrival of the Director.  
• To work in accordance with all Sodexo policies and procedures.
• To carry out any other task as directed by the Director.

Please see attached job description for further information regarding the role requirements.

The Ideal Candidate

• Clear leadership and decision making
• To be a role model for staff and prisoners 
• High level of inter personal skills including assertiveness and self-motivation
• Good level of numeracy and literacy
• Demonstrable experience in an environment where attention to detail is essential
• The ability to challenge inappropriate behaviour
• Ability to perform tasks alone or in a team to a high standard without constant supervision
• Proactive, systematic approach to tasks
• Excellent communication and people skills; 
• The ability to work well in a team and under pressure
• Good listener and sensitive whilst maintaining professionalism   
• Reliable and Punctual and understands the importance of setting standards

Package Description

£30,990.50 plus benefits

Additional benefits you can look forward to:

• All meals provided whilst on-site
• Free parking
• Free on-site gym and subsidised gym memberships
• 28 days annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays)
• BUPA Healthcare
• Employee Assistance Programme – access to 24/7, 365 days support on a range of topics – work, relationships, legal, financial to name but a few
• Contributory Pension Scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Perks at work employee discounts across hundreds of high street shops for fashion, holidays, electronics, gaming supplies, cinema tickets and much more

We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to  support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process

Please note all roles within Sodexo Justice are subject to security and recruitment checks which may include a Social Media Check. You will also be asked to provide 5 years’ worth of references and request employment history details from the HMRC. In addition post holders will be subjected to an Enhanced Disclosure Scotland check prior to being employed.

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs some 36,000 employees to deliver integrated facilities management services to clients at over 2,000 locations in the energy, corporate, healthcare, education, leisure, defence, and justice sectors. With an annual turnover of over £1bn, we provide everything from catering, cleaning and reception to security, laboratory, and grounds maintenance services, enabling our clients to focus on their core business

At Sodexo we are committed to a leading role in promoting equality opportunities and valuing diversity and inclusion. We seek to create a work environment based on mutual respect for all individuals, building a culture that appreciates and values the experiences and skills brought by each person to benefit our organisation and work hard to ensure that all people, whatever their age, disability, gender, transgender, marital or family status, race or ethnicity, religious belief of sexual orientation are welcome to and included within our business. We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process

Please note all roles within Sodexo Justice are subject to security and recruitment checks which may include a Social Media Check. You will also be asked to provide 5 years’ worth of references and request employment history details from the HMRC.