202305: Youth Justice Worker – HMP YOI Feltham Futures

Youth Justice Worker – HMP YOI Feltham Futures

Applying for your first youth justice worker role and happy to work away from home? Get your career off to a great start, gaining valuable experience working at another prison for 23 months before returning to HMP YOI Feltham permanently.  

We are recruiting not just for youth justice workers who are needed today, but for youth justice workers to fill vacancies at HMP YOI Feltham in years to come.  We need youth justice workers now to fill vacancies at other prisons and that is why we are recruiting to this special futures scheme that guarantees you a youth justice workers role at HMP YOI Feltham permanently but for the first 23 months of your service you will be working at HMP YOI Cookham Wood.

It’s a great opportunity.  You will benefit from a greater variety of experience, you will also get your accommodation costs paid for up to 23 months, receive a recruitment and retention payment paid at 12 months and 23 months and a paid monthly trip home. You won’t be on your own and you will be with other new officers who, like you will be returning to HMP YOI Feltham at the end of their 23 month deployment.

You are only eligible for this scheme if you are applying for your first youth justice worker position – not if you’re looking to move from one prison to another.

The Youth Custody Service is transforming its workforce and we want you to help us on this journey. The youth justice worker role is based on the prison officer role, but specific to working in youth custody. It will be a driving force for changing the way children and young people are cared for in custody.

We are looking for people who have a special talent in helping young people.

You will be responsible for ensuring the security and safety of children and supporting them day-to-day in a custodial environment. You’ll get training and development to ensure you have a clear understanding of the individual circumstances for young people in custody, and how your reactions in complex or dynamic situations are key to ensuring these children are helped to build better lives.

You will support young people who may have committed serious crimes, grown up in difficult settings or have mental health concerns. These individuals will test boundaries at every level, but also have a huge potential for change

You will need a DBS check.

What’s on offer?

• You will benefit from higher take-home pay than is available via our standard youth justice worker recruitment process.
• We will pay your accommodation costs (up to £589 per month).
• You will be able to reclaim the cost of a monthly trip home by public transport.

You’ll also benefit from comprehensive paid training, plus a range of other employee benefits and career progression opportunities.

How to apply

• The online application begins with important details such as your National Insurance number and right to work in the UK.

 The online assessment centre

If you pass the online test, we will invite you to an online assessment centre.

We test to see if you have the abilities, behaviours and strengths to be a prison officer.

Once you’ve successful 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.

We will tell you what to expect and bring before the day.

Job details

Eligibility

To become a youth justice worker, you will need to:

• be at least 18 years old
• have the right to work in the UK
• be reasonably fit and able to pass our fitness test
• have good eyesight in both eyes (both with and without corrective lenses)

For safety reasons, everyone training to be a youth justice worker needs a suitable standard of hearing (without the use of hearing aids).

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

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Visa sponsorship

Please note we are unable to sponsor any individuals via the Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visa.

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 youth justice worker. Personal qualities are more important. You need to show:

• communication and influencing skills
• commitment to quality
• effective decision-making
• care and understanding

Pay

Your pay will depend on your weekly shift hours. The figures below are based on a 39 hour week (you will start on a 37 hour contract until you have completed your initial training. You can then choose to increase your hours to 39 or 41 hours a week.)

Salaries quoted include an unsocial hours allowance

Salary once returned to HMP YOI Feltham

£36,140 (for a 39 hour week inc 20% unsocial hours)

Starting salary at HMP YOI Cookham Wood

£32,702 (for a 39 hour week inc 20% unsocial hours) plus a £1500 Recruitment & Retention Premium while on deployment paid at 12 month and 23 month point.

Opportunities, once trained to earn Payment Plus.

(Payment Plus is paid at £22 per hour)

You will also get:

• your accommodation costs paid (up to £589 per month)
• the cost of a monthly trip home by public transport.

Total length of deployment 23 months, after which you will return to HMP YOI Feltham, your permanent prison.  You may also be able to transfer to your deployed prison permanently if you wish

 Youth justice worker 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 over 25%
• rental deposit loans

• cycle to work scheme, travel loans and other benefits

Essential skills

You don’t need qualifications to become a youth justice worker. Personal qualities are more important. You need to show:

• good communication and influencing skills
• commitment to quality
• effective decision-making
• care and understanding

As a practitioner, you will be working with children, young people and families, including carers, to achieve positive and sustainable change in their lives. You will:

• demonstrate a passion to care for and about children, young people and families
• be skilled in recognising and assessing the complex needs that children, young people and families often present
• agree with the child, young person or family any specific interventions or referrals
• take an approach that will be one of respectful curiosity that challenges and supports children, young people and families, to achieve their potential and stay safe
• work alongside other professionals and organisations to share the responsibility for improving outcomes

Each piece of work with a child or family will be different and you will exercise judgement on a range of evidence-based approaches to inform your practice. You will regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your methods and actions. Regular supervision with an experienced practitioner will encourage reflection on your practice. At the end of the apprenticeship, the high quality of your practice will be making a real difference to those you work with.

Find out more about being a youth justice worker.

Training and career progression

Working within youth custody, you’ll have a clear progression pathway. Full details regarding the apprenticeship course will be made available prior to the time of enrolment.

Once you have successfully completed your qualification, you will progress to a band 4 youth justice worker specialist role. Please note, if you are not successful on completion of the programme, you will be redeployed to a prison officer role in the adult estate.

Ongoing training and development for specialist skills such as child protection and safeguarding will be provided.

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.

Your successful pass from the online assessment centre will be valid for 12 months if you want to apply for vacancies at other prisons

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 are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order:

Shared Service Connect Ltd: call 0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm) or email Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com

Ministry of Justice Resourcing: email resourcing-services@justice.gov.uk

The Civil Service Commission.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging.  

Disability support

As a Disability Confident employer, the Ministry of Justice is committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. We can offer reasonable adjustments to help with the online tests and online assessment centre.

If you require any assistance, please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am-6pm) or e-mail MoJ-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com. Please quote the job reference 75580.

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 – 20th July 2023

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Job contact :

• Name : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com
• Telephone : 0845 241 5358

Recruitment team

• Email : Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com