Northern Ireland prison service (now recruiting))

Weestones wrote: »

For anyone that has applied for the CPO role, they won't be getting employed so I wouldn't hold your breathe folks! They have extended the merit list, but only for 2 months extra, that's the most they can extend it! Prisons are majorly understaffed atm, and in shocking state!
They are looking at more CPO's but they will be looking to transfer PCO's over, and possibly hire another 20 PCO's!

I spoke to a lady in charge of recruitment after a furious email was sent, a good few months ago, who said they would be working down the merit list again as a lot of those who scored in the top percentile only ticked cpo, and they legally have to go down it again, and she said the cpo training is different to pco training as pcos would have to be retrained, she assured me that cpos would be recruited from the list as people who ticked pco position would not be able to transfer over so soon, again this is what I was told, I explained to her my concerns as I scored high in the merit list and was pretty irate at the process with others scoring lower and being in employment, I can't remember what it's called but there's a legal term for what was done and if they did start recruiting and none were taking from the cpo only position and had scored high in the merit then they would be falsifying what was explained. And could face legal action from those that blindly handicapped themselves, and they've reassured me twice that this won't be the case. I don't believe them mind you.

I know you got in stones, and if that is gonna be happening with transfers because what I said above is what I was told and I do take it with a pinch of salt, but when candidates score high, like top 50 and only ticked cpo, but someone 100 or so ticked both and is currently in employment as a pco now has an opportunity at cpo even though they scored lower in merit, that's pretty messed up. They should've notified everyone from the start what the craic was rather than offering 2 jobs for one merit list and have everyone all over the show. it's like those that ticked cpo only have been forgotten about even though most of us are in the top 100 here, and as I said blindly significantly handicapped ourselves. By the way stones not getting at you mate this is me just venting hoping someone from the service sees this lol.

Anyone phoned the recruitment team lately?

http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/Assembly-Business/Official-Report/Committee-Minutes-of-Evidence/Session-2014-2015/October-2014/Prisons-Issues--Prison-Officers-Association/

New report saying of the staffing crisis and need for recruitment all I can is wtf? Has anybody heard anything official in terms of a letter in the mail or anything? I'm assuming probably not as nobody has posted anything, hope everyone is doing well.

Well that's that then, merit list is closed. I'd totally forgotten about it tbh.

I dunno if someone could pm me that's in already or even respond on this thread, I'm just wondering I've heard that only 30 or so are transferring over from pco to cpo? Just thinking despite being ran around like a tube, I would probably apply again, but a limited number, if that's 30 recruited then I'm thinking that's not a lot, to which I may just say sod it. Any info would be great.

Didn't bother, the money wasn't much better than my regular job and then there was travel to think of.

Has anybody been to their test or awaiting to do their test?

Scottish Prison Service are recruiting for anyone interested.

Joe789 wrote: »

Panel found that I was suitable for appointment however they are only appointing 20 hour contracts which I did not select on my application form.

There were 3 other options, 40 hours, 35 hours and temporary contracts.

Will be offered if any posts that I did indicate come available blah blah.

6 week wait for the email. I thought my interview went well and I am a bit gutted not to be offered. Why advertise for positions if they are not going to be offered?

Joe I was in the same position last campaign applied and ticked the custody prison officer alone rather than pco as well scored like merit 67 as there was an assessment centre then this was for April 2013 btw but yeah people in merit of 190 etc got a position before me because I ticked only 1 box even though they said they were recruiting for both, but they weren't they were recruiting for only pco, I have never had a great experience with the prison service in terms of recruitment, and their recruitment process is questionable, most of the guys and galls there are using it as a stepping stone into the PSNI and the NIPS know this, I have all the respect for the prison officers and admire them for what they do, but the people that run it have no clue. Prison officers are targeted the same as PSNI are however PSNI max out at 40k including environemental allowance, a prison officer 23-25k to me not acceptable. I'm not a prison officer, but I know a few and morale is low, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next several months. Good luck bud. By the way I waited from say July 2013 until March 2015 there to say they were no longer appointing but to apply again as a new campaign was opening, don't hold out bud if they do come through happy days. All the best.

Joe789 wrote: »

Cheers HighburyLad! This was solely a PCO campaign. Ive heard that morale is very low in the prisons. They have states that pay is £9.08 p/h for this position and yeh I agree the pay is not anywhere near PSNI standard or even what it should be given the job but my current employment sucks that bad Id gladly take the cut to get on the ladder! Fingers crossed for movement in the not so distant future. See you over on the other forum lol.

Haha, you sure will mate lol

Seen an ad today on Indeed.com and jobstoday.co.uk, apparently NIPS are recruiting but I can't find any info on the DOJ or NICS recruitment sites...I would post a link but this is a new profile and it won't let me.

Apply for both, two separate applications.

The application is online and it says select one position to apply for, I think I'll submit two separate forms just in case, can't see there being many problems with that.

Cheers for the info guys.

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

Just tried to apply for a second role and it only allows you to submit one form.

You can't submit 2 applications unfortunately dude, you type in both roles if you want to be considered for both in that one box.

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

Cheers, I already submitted my application for the NCO role. I assumed I was only allowed to indicate my preferred role and that it would be two applications if I wanted to apply for both.

Oh well can't change it now lol.

Hopefully not many people fancy working the night shift.

Haha me being one of them lol I submitted for the CPO, I wouldn't worry anyway you can transfer posts anyway at some point so if you get the job you can internally transfer, loads transfer from the pco position to the cpo and vice versa so your good either way dude

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

Haha, that's good to know if I was successful I'd most likely transfer at some point to get experience from all areas of the service. Hopefully most folk are too focused on the PSNI process to give this one a go. Good luck with your application.

You never get the same numbers of people applying for the prison service the same as the police, I think the last campaign for PCO's at the start of the summer there had 2000 people applying but that number would dramatically drop even for the entrance test and now its just an interview afterwards were as before it used to be an assessment centre, and as I said its supposed to be a big recruitment campaign again, if you go onto the ni assembly website and look up official reports and look up justice, within that there is minutes from the start of the month from the prison service big wigs and explains what their looking at, and again stipulate a big recruitment plus the money is apparently better, but it doesn't look that different if I'm honest.

I take it everybody on here seen the report and news on Maghaberry and the Prison service? All I can say is kinda scary, I wonder if this will hurt recruitment they've launched.

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

Yeah seen that too, but was staffing levels not one of the concerns raised? Hopefully recruitment isn't affected too much, but if it is I'd rather it be now than a few months through the process.

Yeah seems to be a big issue is lack of officers, I was thinking along the lines of deterring people from applying, I would hazard a guess that the recruitment will be rather quick this time round, apparently they want a lot in by the summer according to a friend who's a serving officer.

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

Yeah I know what you mean. The whole lack of morale among current officers that has been reported might deter people from applying.

I read somewhere that they were hoping to have new officers in place early in the new year but I think they were mostly to be drawn from current prisoner escort officers who wish to move.

I haven't actually seen how long the training takes, do you have any idea?

From what I've been told I think it's 8-10 weeks at the prison service college at Millisle.

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

Ah no problem it doesn't seem very long compared to other services, I thought they had closed the Millisle site, could be wrong though.

I read somewhere it had closed too, but as far as I know its still in use I think possibly the prison service own it, coule be wrong, but i was told it's still in use.

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34783958

Mentions approx. 1,000 people have applied so far.

Once tests are done I guarantee there will be a fair number who don't turn up. Hopefully these reports recently will shake those in charge up and realise they need officers. I applied in April 2013 for the position of CPO and scored significantly high in merit and this was when assessment centres were done. From that campaign despite advertising for both pco and cpo positions they did not recruit 1 cpo only pco so I was effectively put on a merit list because I ticked only one position, might I add individuals placed 100 places below me, were given the position of pco, purely because myself and others handicapped ourselves by ticking 1 position, up onto 2015 when I got a letter saying the list had expired and to apply again when the new campaign started in June there for PCO I scored again very high but because they are only looking like 20 pcos which they still haven't got yet in training from what I've heard, I was placed on another merit list. The position I want is cpo and have applied for that, and speaking to friends who are officers who are based at maghaberry they can't believe they have not taken us on at all.

I know people who have left for the police and many will continue to do so, unless the issues raised are addressed and hopefully this will be the case now. From what I gather they intend to recruit, there is prison officers who are eligible for this stormont civil service early retirement package and they will probably go soon too, and people continue to leave , so with only around 1000 applicants chances should be in favour for those that want the job providing they pass the pass mark. By the way I know a lot of new recruits were told never to listen to the older "dinosaurs" within the prison service and that's fair enough but these people served during the most difficult of times and never had a report like what we got there and had far more experience than the senior management at dealing with the complexity that is our prison service, I've heard the term they've been using an English solution, as in templating the English prison service system, which has like 50 prisons, to solve our problems and it can't be done. We have 3 establishments with prison officers constantly being targeted.

Good luck everybody applying I do believe things will be better for us new folks applying.
If anybody who used to use this forum who got recruited and are still in could tell us any info that would be great, the pay looks a little better from what I could see, any advice is always welcomed on here. Sorry for the long story folks, kinda venting because I feel that my time has been wasted applying and passing everything and still not getting something out of it, when it probably could've at least ease the burden if they had taken us all on.

Joe789 wrote: »

I applied for the last campaign of PCO. Passed my interview and initially was told that they were only taking 20 hour contracts on. However a few weeks later they progressed my application. Had my medical two and a half months ago and my CTC is still in progress 3 months on!! Heard nothing. I have two friends who are in the Prison Service and were just in Millisle for training and there is a class of 12 in there at the minute for PCO. Theyre not great at communicating!

The merit list could be the same again this time with 2 positions, not getting a job because of the application form.

It's crazy man, it's so bad, I have my physical for the other job in a couple of weeks lol but it would be nice to just have this as backup. Apparently this new campaign is a big recruitment drive what that means I have no idea.