Managerial

The role

There are excellent opportunities to progress in management within the Prison Service. If you come into the Department as a manager it will usually be at Executive Officer (junior manager) level.

As an Executive Officer you could be delivering services as a general manager, or providing specialist support in areas such as Information Technology, Human Resources or Training. Your work could involve:

managing and leading a team of support/administrative staff
acting as a decision maker
helping to shape new policies

Many Executive Officers have reached their positions through internal promotion. However, we also recruit directly to these jobs through local and national newspapers.

The Prison Service also directly recruits staff into a wide range of more senior management posts including procurement, accountancy and personnel.

Eligibility Requirements

If you are interested in working for the Prison Service in a managerial role you will need to meet minimum eligibility requirements.

For some posts there may be a requirement for you to hold specified minimum educational/professional qualifications. These will be specified in the job advert.

What's the work like?

Paul Haughton is a Prison Service Manager currently working in Headquarters.

"I came into the Service as a trained architect working on loads of prison designs. It's a brilliant career to go into- so varied. More recently I've become the Chair of RESPECT which is the fastest growing minority ethnic support network in the Civil Service. It says a lot for the Prison Service- it's serious about diversity, its serious about race issues. Basically the opportunity for anyone to really shine here is getting better and better. It's a great time to get involved."