Ministry of Justice UK
HM Inspectorate of Prisons - Inspector (Healthcare) (Ref: 21253)
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Job Summary
This position is based at 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4BB, National
Job Description
We are an independent inspectorate led by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. We scrutinise the conditions and treatment of prisoners and other detainees and report on our findings.
We help to make sure that detention is humane, safe, respectful and helps to prepare people for release ahead of their return to the community. We do that by carrying out independent inspections of prisons, young offender institutions, secure training centres and courts in England and Wales and places of immigration detention across the UK.
Find out about our expectations for different types of detention.
We publish reports to let people know about our findings and hold the government, and those running places of detention, to account. We also identify and share examples of good practice to support leaders in learning from other, comparable institutions.
Our role is to shine a light on what needs to change, but we cannot enforce it. It is up to prison leaders to consider the best way to respond to our concerns and use their resources and expertise to find solutions. HM Prison and Probation Service or the Home Office should work with the establishment to support this progress.
Find out more about our mandate.
If you are applying on a part-time basis you will be required to complete a minimum of 22.2 hours (0.6 days - 3 working days).
About The Role
HM Inspectorate of Prisons are looking for Inspectors to inspect prison and other forms of custody. The inspector is the pivotal role within our organisation, inspecting the conditions and treatment prisoners and detainees experience whilst they are held in custody. They do these using criteria we call Expectations, which describe the standards establishments should achieve.
Inspectors must be confident and be able to interact in the field with detainees, staff and leaders during an inspection. They must be able to analyse complex information from a range of sources and determine accurate and objective judgements under time pressure. They also need the ability to write up key findings in a clear, concise and evidence-based way. These roles require excellent team players who can support colleagues when working as part of an inspection team but are also able to spend long periods inspecting and working alone.
Most inspections take place over two weeks, so the role of an inspector requires a considerable amount of time working away from home. This will sometimes include leaving on Sunday afternoon to start work early on a Monday. If you are attending the full inspection week. It is essential that inspectors are very flexible, but the Inspectorate will offer a balanced workload that provides time at home between inspections. Across the year, you are likely to complete on average 18 or 20 weeks away on inspection. When not inspecting, time will be used for report writing, project work and other tasks as required.
Frequent travel within the UK (and possibly abroad) will be required, and you will spend at least one week in three away on inspection, as well as travelling for meetings and other events. You will also need to be available to come to London for internal and external meetings on a regular basis. A preparedness to travel and work away from home is a key requirement of the role.
Responsibilities
You will:
- Inspect the conditions and treatment of prisoners and detainees, using HMIP’s own Expectations inspection criteria.
- Interact with detainees and staff throughout inspections, seeking their views.
- Work under significant time pressure during inspections.
- Spend a lot of your time working on your own each day in the custodial environment (you will be trained in jailcraft and carrying keys).
- Work at speed, interpret complex information and draw accurate and objective conclusions from a range of evidence sources.
- Draft key findings in a clear, defensible and evidence-based way.
- Discuss, evaluate and debate findings with the team leader and other team members.
- Need to be an excellent team player throughout the inspection weeks, Support colleagues and constructively contribute to on-site discussions and judgements.
- Brief senior managers in the establishment about your developing findings and participate in the debrief at the end of the inspection.
- Write up your evidence-based findings clearly and concisely the week after an inspection, to tight timescales and wordcounts (and using information technology).
- Monitor policy and practice in relation to those in custody and help make sure that your team, and the Inspectorate in general keeps up to date on these developments.
- Attend meetings and conferences, where required, on behalf of the Inspectorate.
- Assist with policy papers, briefings and thematic reviews as required.
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Essential Knowledge, Experience And Skills:
All candidates will need to have:
- A current registered health care qualification
- Knowledge/experience of clinical practice/managing within criminal justice health and social care settings and/or
- Experience of using clinical governance systems within criminal justice health and social care services or health care provider services
- Competent in using System one patient records
- Senior level experience within the health services or criminal justice health services
- Experience of developing or influencing policy, in relation to health and social care in the criminal justice system.
- Travel extensively across the country, and potentially overseas, spending up to a week away at one time.
- Experience of working with people at senior levels.
- Experience of developing or influencing policy.
- An interest in working across the range of custodial environments but mainly in prisons.
- Experience that demonstrates support for and understanding of the Inspectorate’s work and values.
- Experience that demonstrates excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write high-quality evidence-based reports at pace.
- Sound interpersonal, communication and relationship building skills.
- The ability to thrive working as part of the inspection team, but also able to spend long periods inspecting and working alone.
- You will be working in difficult and challenging environments.
The best candidates will offer a combination of the following skills:
- Think in an objective and analytical manner with the ability to analyse a range of oral, written and statistical evidence.
- Make accurate judgements under pressure and support their findings with evidence.
- Be committed to continuous improvement, in an environment where performance matters.
- Adhere to HMIP’s code of conduct and core values at all times.
- Be flexible, adaptive and creative in solving problems and dealing with change.
- Be resilient in the field and meet tight deadlines.
- Deliver difficult messages in a constructive manner.
- Be able to manage confidently potentially difficult and challenging situations.
- Be able to engage constructively with prisoners and other detainees.
- Be extremely flexible and supportive to colleagues.
- Work closely with colleagues, custodial staff and detainees throughout inspections.
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Desirable:
- Experience of scrutinising/monitoring custodial environments
- Experience of working with people at senior levels
- Experience of developing or influencing policy
- An interest in working across the range of custodial environments but mainly in prisons
- Experience that demonstrates support for and understanding of the Inspectorate’s work and values
- Experience that demonstrates excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write high-quality evidence-based reports at pace
- Sound interpersonal, communication and relationship building skills
- The ability to thrive working as part of the inspection team, but also able to spend long periods inspecting and working alone
- A valid driving licence
- Understanding of policy, debates associated with detention and custodial environments.
- A background in inspection or investigation.
Why become a prison inspector, please view the below video to gain an insight on current inspector’s experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG9cX1g-k5c
To find out more, listen to the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, and Inspection Team Leader, Hindpal Singh Bhui, discuss how inspection findings lead to action: from real‑time feedback to governors, to published reports that inform ministers, practitioners, the media and families, and help drive scrutiny and improvement across the estate.
https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/news/our-purpose-process-and-impact/
We are an independent inspectorate led by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. We scrutinise the conditions and treatment of prisoners and other detainees and report on our findings.
We help to make sure that detention is humane, safe, respectful and helps to prepare people for release ahead of their return to the community. We do that by carrying out independent inspections of prisons, young offender institutions, secure training centres and courts in England and Wales and places of immigration detention across the UK.
Find out about our expectations for different types of detention.
We publish reports to let people know about our findings and hold the government, and those running places of detention, to account. We also identify and share examples of good practice to support leaders in learning from other, comparable institutions.
Our role is to shine a light on what needs to change, but we cannot enforce it. It is up to prison leaders to consider the best way to respond to our concerns and use their resources and expertise to find solutions. HM Prison and Probation Service or the Home Office should work with the establishment to support this progress.
Find out more about our mandate.
If you are applying on a part-time basis you will be required to complete a minimum of 22.2 hours (0.6 days - 3 working days).
Desirable:
- Experience of scrutinising/monitoring custodial environments
- Experience of working with people at senior levels
- Experience of developing or influencing policy
- An interest in working across the range of custodial environments but mainly in prisons
- Experience that demonstrates support for and understanding of the Inspectorate’s work and values
- Experience that demonstrates excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write high-quality evidence-based reports at pace
- Sound interpersonal, communication and relationship building
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