About the job

Job summary

This is a critical role at the heart of HMPPS. We have seen a significant increase in the adult male prison population, causing capacity challenges in prisons. There are also challenges around probation capacity and staff need to be equipped and supported to do their jobs and HMPPS organised to deliver our services as effectively as possible.

Managing prison estate capacity, probation capacity and video conferencing capability is fundamental to the purpose of the prison system and critical to the operation of the wider Criminal Justice System. The post holder will be directly responsible for managing all changes to the capacity of the prison system, planning the flow of prisoners between establishments, and directing daily prisoner movements. This is a senior level leadership role at the head of a substantial and geographically dispersed team combining specialist operational and non-operational skills to deliver high quality outcomes.

As a departmental expert on prison population and capacity issues, the post holder plays a key role in Ministry of Justice supply and demand planning. You will be influential within a senior peer group including the HMPPS operational line, key decision makers across the Ministry of Justice, and policy advisers/Ministers. The role includes ownership of the main data sources for prison capacity, in particular the cell certification process and daily capacity reporting and requires a thorough understanding of the strengths and limitations of the wider supply and demand planning landscape.

The Prison Capacity Sub Portfolio is delivering a number of ambitious projects and programmes as part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), building additional prison places as part of the biggest prison infrastructure initiative in a century. These include construction of new prisons, expansions of existing prisons, and emergency/short term capacity projects.

This is a Nationally based role

Job description

For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information pack

Person specification

As the Senior Civil Servant responsible for capacity optimisation, you will have overall responsibility for the management of prison and probation capacity, including:

• Providing strong leadership, influence, accountability and direction.
• Ensuring that all prison capacity is correctly certified in line with legal requirements and that the total operational capacity of the prison system in England and Wales is accurately reported.
• Managing the process of temporarily taking prison capacity offline and returning it to use, to ensure that as much capacity as possible is available to meet periods of highest demand.
• Directing the system of prisoner movements to ensure that up to the point of useable operational capacity, every prisoner sent from the courts in England and Wales is safely accommodated.
• Managing the implementation of Operation Safeguard, under which prisoners are held in police accommodation pending their transfer into the prison system.
• Provide capacity optimisation advice across both prisons and probation as well as providing advice to other government departments on efficient population/capacity management of the government detained estate.
• Delivering a vision for how the estate will be used to accommodate different cohorts of prisoners and ensuring the configuration of the estate, the flow of prisoners through the prison system and accompanying operational directions and guidance support this vision.
• Supporting prison operations by ensuring that decisions on managing capacity and the movement of prisoners supports organisational priorities and risk management, including 24-hour on-call coverage.
• Understanding the nuances of a complex and data rich operating environment and using this knowledge to provide reliable and objective advice on the supply of, and demand for, prison places.
• Building and optimising usage in prisons of video capability to support official consultations, including legal, parole and probation.
• Acting as Senior Responsible Owner for the installation of modern, state of the art, video conferencing centres in prisons.
• Championing engagement, equality and inclusion through leadership of the team; and
• Championing continuous profession development and professional skills across HMPPS, MoJ and the wider Civil Service.

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. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Please view our candidate information pack for full details about the role, key responsibilities person specification, and the criteria you will be assessed against throughout the recruitment process. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, and feel that you meet the criteria, we would welcome your application.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, HM Prison & Probation Service contributes £20,925 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Ability and Experience.For full details of the Selection Process and Recruitment Timeline, please view the Candidate Information pack.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.