Frequently Asked Questions

Advance into Justice is a fast-track recruitment scheme for:

• Service leavers in transition;
• Veterans who have left the Armed Forces within the last 5 years
• Spouses or Legal Partners of service leavers or veterans

Applications can be made well in advance of your end date with the armed forces, allowing you to start a second career the day after you leave. For veterans the process from conditional offer of employment at an assessment centre should only take 4-6 weeks.

Appointments through the Advance into Justice scheme are made on a 24-month fixed term contract, with the opportunity to convert to permanency after 12 months.

There will be a resettlement incentive package offered to candidates who meet the criteria in addition to the salary for the role.

All service leavers are eligible to apply, as are veterans who have left the Armed Forces within the last 5 years. Additionally Spouses or Legal Partners of service leavers or veterans are eligible for the scheme.

If you fall outside of this, please look at the Great Place to Work for Veterans which will be implemented in April 2022 covering all roles within the Ministry of Justice and offers a guaranteed interview for all applicants who meet the minimum standards.

The scheme is open for Prison Officers, OSG’s, Caterers, Instructional Officers, Physical Education Instructors, Probation Service Officers, Case Administrators, Community Payback Supervisors.

All appointments made to the Advance into Justice scheme are on a fixed-term basis of 24 months. After 12 months we will begin the process of converting your role to permanency, if you are performing well within the role.

As part of the Advance into Justice scheme you will be offered one of two options:

• If you live within 75 minutes of the allocated location, you will be offered home to work travel expenses for your first 2 years in service.
• If you live more than 75 minutes of the establishment, you can claim up to £12,000 in receipted relocation costs. Relocation costs over £8,000 are usually taxable, however we will be covering the tax burden for the additional £4,000.

Once an assessment day has taken place and you are offered a role, we aim to have the pre-employment checks completed within 4-6 weeks.

If you are a Service Leaver, you can go through this process whilst you are in transition and we can agree a deferred start date to align with your leave date from the armed forces ensuring an immediate second uniformed career. Your deferred start date can be up to 12 months from the successful assessment day.

Yes. The Advance into Justice team will provide support across the recruitment process from the pre-assessment webinar through to the assessment centres/Interviews, the vetting processes and right up to the start date.

Once in post applicants will have the full access to support networks that currently exist within the prison service.

The team will be sending out feedback surveys to help applicants improve the process for future campaigns.

Advance into Justice is currently a ‘pilot’ scheme however, if successful, there is an expectation that the campaign will run every 6 months.

Your application can be held for up to a year from the date of your assessment day. This is because the certification for some of our assessments (fitness/medical) are time bound.

If your Armed Forces exit date is more than 12 months from the assessment date, we may need to make further arrangements but can discuss these with you on a case-by-case basis.

The scheme is now open for other roles. However if the role you are interested in is not included, there is a scheme called ‘Great place to work for Veterans’ which went live in Aprill 2022, whereby a guaranteed interview is offered to service leavers/veterans if you pass the basic requirements of the sift. This will apply to all roles at all grades across the MoJ.

For further information on the scheme please visit the Great Place to Work for Veterans webpage.

There will be a ‘Register your interest’ function which is on our website when the campaign is not open. Once live, you will be emailed details, if you have registered interest to inform you the campaign is open.

MoJ will also be promoting Advance into Justice through CTP, its social media pages and third sector veteran organisations.

There is no upper age limit for Advance into Justice. Applicants must be 18 on their start date, for prison officer roles, but are able to apply ahead of their 18th birthday.

For all other AIJ roles applicants must be at least 16 years old at point of application.

Shift patterns vary by prison.

Shifts are for operational members of staff and not applicable to all roles.

Shifts are spread over 7 days a week and typically consist of;

• Early shift – Morning until lunchtime
• Main - Main core hours of the day
• Lates - Afternoon into evening
• A shift - Our longest shift which covers early and late
• Nights - Nights are operated as 7 days on, followed by a week of rest days.

As prisons operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you will be expected to work on some public and bank holidays. Bank and public holidays are combined into your annual leave allowance.

You are welcome to apply for Work Life Balance or flexible working should these not be right for you.

There is currently no cap on appointments through the Advance into Justice scheme and all candidates who meet our assessment standards will be provided with a provisional offer of employment.

The independent Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) review prison officer pay on an annual basis in line with public sector pay policy guidelines.

Staff within a pay scale/pay range receive progression increases as they move through the pay scale/pay range, subject to meeting performance requirements (where applicable).

The effective date for increases is 1 April. However, these may be applied retrospectively where there has been a delay in remit approval, discussions with trade union groups have taken place after April, or where increases are linked to annual performance markings.

• 25 days of annual holiday (rising to 30 days after 10 years’ service)
• paid time off for public holidays and 1 extra privilege day*
• generous maternity leave cover
• Civil Service pension – 5.45% employee contribution, 27.1% employer contribution
• cycle to work scheme and travel loans
• property rental deposit loans
• access to local keyworker housing schemes
• employee assistance programmes
• paid special leave for reservist commitments

Recruitment, under the Advance into Justice scheme, will operate a resettlement allowance which is additional to your salary for a set period of time.

You do not need qualifications to become a prison officer, or OSG. Personal qualities are more important. However, we will your numeracy and literacy levels to ensure they meet the standards required to undertake the prison officer role.

Caterers and Instructional officers may require additional qualifications for Band 4 posts. Please check each vacancy for the specific eligibility criteria.

We expect you to demonstrate the following:

• good communication and influencing skills
• teamwork and collaboration
• effective decision-making
• care and understanding

There isn’t currently a home learning package, however there is guidance online with practise tests etc.

Please see our Advance into Justice website to familiarise yourself with the process and provide information on our numeracy and literacy tests.

Unfortunately, you cannot transfer over armed forces service. You will accrue service within the civil service from the first day of your fixed-term appointment.

The Civil Service currently operates a pension called Alpha. This will be a new package as you join. Further information can be found below;

Civil Service Pensions : alpha (civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk)

Civil Service Pensions may be able to provide information on whether pensions can be linked.

Yes. We understand that the cost of attending our assessment centres and interviews will have a financial implication, therefore you will be entitled to claim travel expenses.

You will be provided with an expense form on the day.

Initial training differs for each role, please refer to each role for further information.

Once you are converted to permanency, you can choose to progress your career within the civil service, in any direction. You are unable to move into other roles during your initial fixed-term period.

Conversions to permanency can occur after a minimum of 12 months from your start date.

All training is covered by the Prison Service

You can contact the Advance into Justice team by emailing advance-into-justice@justice.gov.uk. One of our small team will be in contact as swiftly as possible.

If you have further questions, please get in touch.