Assessment Centre

The Written Test checks your written ability and assesses whether you are able to use written sources of information to make effective decisions.

You will be given 40 minutes to answer two exercises, so it will be important to keep track of the time to ensure that you complete the test.

You will type your answers to the two exercises.

We will assess your written responses against the following behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions
• Caring

*Please see definitions of these terms in the behaviours section below.

We will also assess your written responses for:

• Ability to write in sentences that show a reasonable understanding of grammar
• Ability to take information from various sources and summarise it in written format

How to prepare:

Practice timing yourself to read and type text. Practice reviewing written sources of information and typing a summary of the information presented. You could identify a couple of news articles on the same topic, and within a short timeframe (e.g. 30 minutes) write a summary of the key issues that were presented across the articles, and any recommendations or decisions you could make from the information you have gathered. Practice explaining what you would do next to help with the situation, and why you would take that course of action.

Check that family or friends can read and understand your responses, to ensure that your write up shows a reasonable understanding of grammar. There are also useful resources on the BBC Skillswise English website which you may find helpful.

This short test will confirm you have the basic numerical skills needed to perform your duties as a prison officer. You will be given 10 minutes to answer 10 questions.

Questions will involve basic functions such as: counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. You will need to be able to work with ratios and fractions. Questions also require you to extract relevant numerical information from tables and read the time in the 24-hour format. You'll be able to use a calculator during the test and within the role as a prison officer, to help you with your daily tasks.

How to prepare

Take the practice tests to get you started. Practice using your numerical skills, especially involving each basic function outlined above. There are also some useful resources on the BBC Skillswise Maths website that you may find helpful.

During two 10-minute role plays, you will take on the role of a prison officer who is interacting with a prisoner in different scenarios.

The role plays are based upon challenging scenarios that you could be faced with as a prison officer.

We're looking for natural responses based on the information provided to you prior to and during the role plays. You do not require any prior knowledge of the prison officer job role; what's important is how you interact and communicate with others.

We will assess your responses against the following behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions
• Caring

*Please see definitions of these terms in the behaviours section below.

How to prepare:

During the assessment, treat the role plays exactly as you would a real-life situation. Be yourself; we want to measure your natural responses and not what you think we're looking for.

The interview is strengths-based and will last for 30 minutes. This means that questions will focus on what motivates and energises you.

Although no specific preparation is required, you may find it helpful to consider why you would like to become a prison officer and reflect upon your strengths prior to your online assessment centre. We're interested in what motivates and energies you. Some people may find it more difficult to identify their own strengths, so consider talking to family or friends about what strengths they feel you have.

As spoken English is assessed in this Interview, please make sure that other people can understand what you are saying to them. If spoken English is something you struggle with, you could try having a conversation with others and asking for feedback.

Learn more about strength based interview questions.

You will be required to attend a medical assessment with an Occupational Health professional. The purpose of the medical is to assess the general level of health, including weight, blood pressure, eyesight in both eyes and hearing so that an informed opinion can be made on whether you are fit for a role as a Prison Officer and can undergo a fitness test such as the bleep test.

If your blood pressure is too high (i.e. more than 160/100 mmHg) you won't be allowed to take the fitness test due to health and safety reasons. You will be invited back to re-sit your medical assessment. 90/60 to 140/90 - is deemed within healthy range and remains fit to proceed to the fitness test.

If you use an inhaler you must bring an in date one with you for the fitness test.

• Eye test: You MUST have a minimum uncorrected (without glasses or lenses) distance visual acuity of 6/36 with both eyes open and have a corrected visual acuity with a minimum of 6/12 with both eyes open. If correction required to achieve this, at least 6/36 uncorrected with both eyes open.
• Hearing test: You should be able to hear normal conversation at a distance of 10 feet (3m) without the use of hearing aids. Hearing will be tested by formal assessment on the day.

How to prepare

Bring your glasses or contact lenses with you, as well as contact lens solution if you will need to put your lenses back in after the eye test. Avoid caffeinated drinks which may affect your blood pressure.

Prison Officers need to be capable of performing to a certain standard to ensure their safety, as well as the safety of everyone else, including prisoners and work colleagues. Maintaining a certain level of fitness promotes general health and well-being and helps prevent injury. The fitness test includes the 15-metre shuttle run - the 'bleep' test. The bleep test, which involves running/jogging, is not a specific test to assess your ability to run, but a simple test to assess the efficiency of your working muscle's capacity to use oxygen during physical stress/activity using the large muscle groups of the body. Once in post you will be subject to an annual fitness test, so will be expected to maintain your level of fitness during your employment.

To ensure that you are prepared to pass the fitness tests at your assessment centre practice them first using our mobile web application.

Our web application lets you practice both the bleep test and agility test and lets you know how far ahead or behind the required pass mark you are.

Practice Fitness Tests (Mobile device only)

We will ask you within your application form if you would like to request reasonable adjustments. If you feel you require any kind of support and/or would like to discuss this with someone, please indicate 'yes' to requesting reasonable adjustments within the application form. Our Reasonable Adjustments Scheme Team will then contact you following your application to discuss and confirm your reasonable adjustments based on your individual needs.

If you have already applied and have not indicated that you require reasonable adjustments to support you during the Assessment Centre and would now like to make a request, please contact SSCL as soon as possible on 0345 241 5358 prior to attending your Assessment Centre. If you have any queries about your adjustments on the day of your Assessment Centre, please make the Centre Manager aware in the first instance. Reasonable adjustments must be requested and confirmed prior to your Assessment Centre, to ensure these adjustments can be implemented.

Please note that we will hold Assessment Centres for any candidates requiring reasonable adjustments on Friday 11th March in Croydon and Thursday 17th March in Wakefield.

Communicating and Influencing - Which means you have excellent interpersonal skills, communicating clearly challenging and influencing others with confidence. You collaborate with others, showing good listening skills and easily developing mutual respect and understanding.

Managing a Quality Service - You take pride in yourself and your work and demonstrate a strong work ethic. You manage your own time, quickly adapting to changing circumstances, whilst adhering to processes and rules. You lead others by taking charge and providing direction, and take personal responsibility for your actions.

Making Effective Decisions - You have good judgement and problem-solving ability, using a wide range of information and evidence to build a full picture of a situation to guide your decisions.

Caring - You are open-minded, and non-judgemental, treating others with decency and respect. You develop meaningful relationships, empowering and supporting others, whilst maintaining clear boundaries You manage other’s expectations and deliver on your promises and commitments.