Prison Employment Lead

Location: HMP Thameside, London, SE28 0FJ
Salary: Competitive salary plus excellent benefits
Schedule: 40 hours per week

Ready to impact a better future?

As a Prison Employment Lead in our Justice and Immigration team, you’ll play a vital role in improving employability and supporting prison leavers into meaningful, sustained employment on release. Your work will directly support rehabilitation, reduce reoffending, and create positive outcomes for individuals and communities.

You’ll lead an end-to-end prison employment pathway, promoting the real prospect of employment from the very start of a person’s journey through custody. Working closely with colleagues, partners, and employers, you’ll help turn potential into opportunity and ensure work-ready prison leavers are matched to the right roles at the right time.

What you’ll do as a Prison Employment Lead

You’ll be entrusted to:

• Lead the development and delivery of an end-to-end prison employment pathway that promotes employment from induction through to release
• Identify work-ready prisoners and prioritise actions needed to support employability and job readiness
• Match suitable candidates to live vacancies through the New Futures Network and other employment partners
• Manage and develop an Employment Hub that coordinates employment support and promotes opportunities to prison leavers
• Build trusted relationships with prison colleagues, education and information, advice and guidance providers, and community partners
• Champion innovative, industry-focused recruitment approaches and employer engagement activity

Does this sound like you?

You’ll be a great fit for this role if you have…

• Experience working across complex stakeholder groups and influencing at local and regional levels
• Strong communication skills, with the confidence to engage, challenge, and build trust
• A track record of setting goals, meeting targets, and delivering outcomes
• Commercial awareness, with an understanding of recruitment or contract management
• Resilience, adaptability, and the confidence to make and stand by well‑reasoned decisions

Vetting and checks:
A Standard DBS check will be carried out for this position. This includes spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands, and warnings as permitted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. An Occupational Health Questionnaire will also be completed so we can ensure you have the necessary support to perform your duties.

Discover all you need to keep growing

We’re one of the top 1% of international employers, so you can have confidence you’ll be part of a highly supportive culture with leaders you can count on to help you achieve your goals. From mentoring and training to our focus on internal progression, we’re proud to offer clear development opportunities – and the support and tools to help you seize them.

What we offer

• Holidays: 25 days plus bank holidays
• Pension: Up to 6% contributory pension scheme
• Training and development: Over 1,100 internal courses available, funding for qualifications and apprenticeships, mentoring opportunities, and a strong focus on internal progression
• Health and wellbeing: Employee Assistance Programme, Bupa Anytime HealthLine, wellbeing app, discounted access to Serco-managed leisure centres, and 24/7 virtual GP access
• Discounts: Savings across around 1,000 retailers, including food, clothing, travel, and entertainment
• Charity: Paid volunteering day, tax-free charitable giving, and the option to support the Serco People Fund Charity
• Employee networks: Inclusive networks that support connection, learning, and belonging for colleagues from all backgrounds

Let’s impact a better future, together. Apply today.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services. We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone. By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview. For help with your application please contact j&icareersUK@serco.com.

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on j&icareersUK@serco.com to discuss.