First Time Prison Officer Recruitment Scheme

Get your career off to a great start and gain a wealth of experience by joining one of our busier prisons that’s 75 minutes or more from where you live 

About the First Time Prison Officer Recruitment Scheme 

• To apply to be a prison officer under this scheme, you will need to work away from home for your first 23 months.  
• The scheme is only available in the prisons listed below.

You can choose to apply to: 

• a long term high security prison 
• or one of our other busy prisons 

What you need to know 

• When applying, you can choose up to 3 prisons you would like to work at which are 75 minutes or more from where you currently live. 
• If your application is successful, you will be placed at the prison that needs prison officers the most at that time.     
• You will need to work at that prison for at least 23 months and you will not be able to transfer to another prison before then. 
• After 23 months in post, you will move to a prison within 60 to 75 minutes travelling time of your permanent home. This will be your ‘home’ prison which will be confirmed when you start on the scheme. 

Your base salary will depend on which prison you work at. Read more about prison officer salaries here.  

Benefits of the First Time Prison Officer Scheme  

As well as the great benefits you get from being a part of HMPPS, you’ll get:  

• an additional £1,500 each year on top of your salary, for 23 months  
• an opportunity to earn more through our ‘Payment Plus’ scheme (an additional payment for any hours you volunteer to work over your contractual hours)  
• up to £750 per month towards your accommodation costs, for up to 23 months  
• the cost of a monthly trip home repaid, based on the journey from the prison you are working at to the prison closest to your home   

Once you have worked at your first prison for 23 months, you will no longer get the additional benefits you get under this scheme.

Check if you’re eligible to apply 

Read about the eligibility criteria you will need to meet to apply to be a prison officer. 

If you apply to work in a high security prison, you must also: 

• have a Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) security check as part of your application 
• have been resident in the UK for the last 3 years to apply for a CTC check

Refer to the list of prisons below to see which ones you will need a CTC check for. 

Apply now

You need to enjoy working in a team and be resilient to be a prison officer. Sound like you? 

Apply to work in a long term high security prison 

When you apply, you’ll be able to select up to 3 prisons from the following list: 

• HMP Full Sutton, York (CTC check required)
• HMP Long Lartin, Evesham, Worcestershire (CTC check required)  
• HMP Swaleside, Isle of Sheppey, Kent (no CTC check needed) 
• HMP Whitemoor, March, Cambridgeshire (CTC check required)  
• HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (CTC check required)  

Other prisons available under this scheme

When you apply, you’ll be able to select up to 3 prisons from the following list. You do not need a CTC check to work in any of these prisons: 

• HMP Bullingdon, Bicester, Oxfordshire 
• HMP Gartree, Market Harborough, Leicestershire  
• HMP Guys Marsh, Shaftesbury, Dorset 
• HMP Norwich, Norwich, Norfolk 
• HMP Onley, Rugby, Warwickshire 
• HMP Portland, Isle of Portland, Dorset 
• HMP Swinfen Hall, Lichfield, Staffordshire 
• HMP The Verne, Isle of Portland, Dorset 
• HMP Wayland, Thetford, Norfolk 
• HMP Stocken, Oakham, Rutland 
• HMP The Mount, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire