Work as a prison officer at HMP Whitemoor

About HMP Whitemoor

HM Prison Whitemoor is a category high security prison near March, a market town in Cambridgeshire. It holds 458 adult male prisoners who are mostly serving long sentences.

How to get to Whitemoor Prison

With plenty of onsite parking, HMP Whitemoor is a 40 minute drive from Peterborough and King’s Lynn.

The nearest station, with a regular train service from Peterborough, is March which is 20 minutes away. Please bear in mind that, as a prison officer, you will need to work shifts and some unsocial hours and public holidays when public transport may not be running. 

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Eligibility to work in a category A high security prison

To work as a prison officer at HMP Whitemoor, you must: 

• Complete enhanced pre-employment checks.
• Have Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) security clearance. For this, you must have been resident in the UK for the last 3 years.

As a prison officer in Whitemoor Prison, you will work with prisoners who are serving long sentences. You will therefore need strong communication skills and be able to build rapport with a wide range of people over a long period of time. 

Why work as a prison officer at HMP Whitemoor?

Working at Whitemoor Prison is an excellent way to start your career as a prison officer, because:

• working with people who are in custody for a number of years will give you more opportunities to build rapport with individual prisoners, and have a positive impact on them
• you will gain a wealth of experience that you might not get in a lower category prison due to the complex prisoners you will be working with
• you will get to use and build on all the skills you learnt in your initial training, including ways of managing risk that are specific to high security prisons

HMP Whitemoor is currently the only prison that holds an employer recognition award from the Ministry of Defence for the work it does to support Armed Forces veterans.

Inside HMP Whitemoor

As well as wings for the main prison population, HMP Whitemoor also has:

• a designated wing for prisoners with personality disorders
• a close supervision centre that provides a more controlled and highly supervised environment for more disruptive and high-risk prisoners

Purposeful activities to reduce reoffending

Prisoners are encouraged to engage in purposeful activities to make the most of their time in custody and address some of their reasons for offending. These include:

• vocational training in fields such as painting and decorating, and plastering
• studying for qualifications in a wide range of subjects, from basic English and Maths, through to higher education courses via the Open University
• work opportunities in the prison kitchen, laundry and recycling workshop
• access to a range of psychological interventions to address reoffending triggers such as substance misuse and anger issues

Opportunities to specialise and progress

Once you’ve completed your training and probationary period as a prison officer, you’ll have a wide range of opportunities to specialise at HMP Whitemoor.

Specialisms include working in one of the therapeutic units, alongside partner organisations such as the NHS and charities who support some very complex prisoners. Or you might choose to train for one of the following roles:

• dog handler
• physical education instructor
• intelligence analyst
• dedicated search officer

There are also a range of progression opportunities.

Outdoor spaces

There are a number of outdoor garden spaces within the prison complex that staff can use during their break times. Plus, behind the prison, there’s a 74 acre nature reserve with a World War 2 memorial built and maintained by prison staff.

Staff benefits

As a prison officer, you will start on a 37 hour a week contract until you have completed your initial training. You can then choose to increase your hours to 39 or 41 hours. This means you can earn between £33,746 and £38,003 as a prison officer at HMP Whitemoor.

Take a look at the full starting salary information for HMPPS prisons.

As an employee of HMP Whitemoor, you’ll have access to a range of facilities and employee benefits including:

• use of free onsite gym facilities both inside the prison and within the prison grounds
• extensive free onsite parking
• access to a range of wellbeing services and staff support networks, including those for people with protected characteristics
• excellent training and career progression opportunities

This is in addition to the great benefits you get from being a part of HM Prison and Probation Service.