Group Practitioner - Prison Leavers Pilot - HMP Channings Wood and HMP Dartmoor

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.

Prison Leavers is a project to improve the social inclusion of people leaving prison. It received £20million funding from the HMT Shared Outcomes Fund, which supports innovative approaches to complex challenges which ‘cut across’ multiple departments. The Prison Leavers Project recognises that to solve the intractable and interconnected challenges that people face when leaving prison, we need to work in new ways. It adopts a systems-led approach, bringing together more than 30 organisations including government departments, local authorities, police and charities, to establish joint ownership of the problems and solutions for people leaving prison. By building a better understanding of the entire system, we aim to identify key points of leverage where interventions might have a wider ripple effect, and adopt new approaches which address the barriers which people face on release, increasing their ability to participate and feel included in their communities. In doing so, we will improve the experience and outcomes for our service users, and support key Government priorities such as reducing reoffending, ending rough sleeping, supporting people to enter work and enhancing social mobility. The job holder will host group-based support for males nearing release from prison. This role is to serve a fixed term pilot and will involve liaising with the central team to support external evaluation of the work. The role is available as a secondment or as a fixed term appointment.

This is a prisoner facing job - without clinical, or line management responsibilities.

The job holder will be based in prison and working with a range of people to develop readiness to engage relational skills on release from prison. Responsible for referrals and hosting group sessions, the job holder with work closely with site staff to maintain safety of participants, and to sequence the activity with other pre-release activities.

This is a full time based on site. Your week will be split between HMP Dartmoor and HMP Channings Wood.

Overview of the job

Prison Leavers is a project to improve the social inclusion of people leaving prison. It received £20million funding from the HMT Shared Outcomes Fund, which supports innovative approaches to complex challenges which ‘cut across’ multiple departments.

The Prison Leavers Project recognises that to solve the intractable and interconnected challenges that people face when leaving prison, we need to work in new ways. It adopts a systems-led approach, bringing together more than 30 organisations including government departments, local authorities, police and charities, to establish joint ownership of the problems and solutions for people leaving prison.

By building a better understanding of the entire system, we aim to identify key points of leverage where interventions might have a wider ripple effect, and adopt new approaches which address the barriers which people face on release, increasing their ability to participate and feel included in their communities. In doing so, we will improve the experience and outcomes for our service users, and support key Government priorities such as reducing reoffending, ending rough sleeping, supporting people to enter work and enhancing social mobility.

This role is to serve a fixed term pilot and will involve liaising with the central team to support external evaluation of the work. The role is available as a secondment or as a fixed term appointment.

This is a non-operational, prisoner facing job - without clinical, or line management responsibilities.

Summary

The job holder will host group-based support for males nearing release from prison.

The job holder will be based in prison and working with a range of people to develop readiness to engage relational skills on release from prison. Responsible for referrals and hosting group sessions, the job holder with work closely with site staff to maintain safety of participants, and to sequence the activity with other pre-release activities.

This is not a role to deliver group therapy, but to facilitate therapeutic discussion to planned themes.

Responsibilities, Activities and Duties

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

● Delivery - Host group-based support to build relational skills, minimum two sessions per week

● Build effective relationships with prison staff to stay up to date and briefed on participants attending the sessions you run; Liaising with internal staff to link the service to other work happening in the prison and attend local meetings

● Records & reporting - Keep clear and concise records; report performance to Project Co-ordinator

● Responsibility for meeting referral targets

● Quality - Ensure the integrity and effectiveness of group support, ensuring standards are met in relation to the delivery of each session in compliance with the framework set out by the MoJ team commissioning the pilot including attending reflective Community of Practice meetings with peers

● Evaluation - Monitoring requirements: data collection for evaluation purposes. Collating feedback on what is working and sharing solutions

● Safeguarding - Monitoring the safety and wellbeing of participants; including liaison with Safer Custody, ACCT and local staff

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation Scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the job holder.

Behaviours

● Communicating and Influencing

● Developing Self and Others

● Working Together

Experience

· Experience of working in a prison environment

· Building relationships with other professionals

· Group facilitation

· Trauma aware (Some knowledge is essential - strong background in trauma- informed approaches a distinct advantage)

· Comfortable running group sessions for males in prison

· Experience of using NOMIS

Technical Requirements

● Fully qualified, UKCP or BACP registered practitioner

● SSCL Prison Cleared

Ability

● Organised

● Ability to work to volume targets

● Conflict management

● Understanding of prison infrastructure

● Confident use of IT systems including Excel

● Current key holder at relevant estate