Skip to content

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 

Apply now

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: 

  • HMP Bullingdon: a category B local resettlement prison in Oxfordshire
  • HMP Deerbolt: a category C training prison in County Durham
  • HMP Elmley: a category B remand prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent
  • HMP Highpoint: a category C training and resettlement prison in Newmarket, Suffolk
  • HMP Norwich: a training and resettlement prison in Norfolk
  • HMP Onley: a category C training prison in Warwickshire
  • HMP Portland: a training and resettlement prison in Dorset
  • HMP The Mount: a category C training and resettlement prison near Hemel Hempstead
  • HMP Stocken: a category C training prison in East Midlands
  • HMP Swinfen Hall: a category C training prison in Staffordshire
  • HMP The Verne: category C prison for men on medium and long term sentences
  • HMP Wayland: a category C training prison East Anglia

Get your prison officer career off to a great start. 

  • Work away from home for your first 23 months
  • An additional £1,500 each year on top of your salary, for 23 months 
  • Up to £750 per month towards your accommodation costs, for up to 23 months 

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 HMP Welland Oaks, a long term high security prison which will be opening in Market Harborough in early 2029.

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.

Apply now