Anyone any experience of working for HM Prison Services? (psychology related)

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

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Anyone work in any prisons on here? Asking as i've nearly finished my psychology degree and i'm looking to specialise in forensic psychology.

I've done a bit of research into forensics and apparantly HMP services is the biggest employee/trainer in the UK of forensic psychologists. Sent an email to them via their website asking how I get onto training schemes or placements. Just wanna know if anyone has any experience working for them in any role? (Even better in a psychological based role)

thanks.
 
No experience here but I do psychology. Have you thought about a Masters in forensic psych? Also there is Birmingham that is offering a Doctorate in forensic psych. I am going onto a Doctorate in clinical psych (fingers crossed) and it is a three-year trainee position paying 21,000 a year.

I'd imagine they would be a good employer though and offer good benifits.
 
I have thought about a masters in forensics, theres one available at Manchester Met uni and Uni Central Lancs but I think i've just about had enough now of exams and coursework. The idea of a doctorate has been thought of as it would be purely research based work around a job not necessarily assignments and exams.

For your doctorate in clincal psych how did you go about arranging it? Ideally I guess I would like to start training in a role with the view to completing a masters or PhD whilst working.

Clinical is what i originally wanted to specialise in but our uni are pretty useless for pointing you in the right direction for sorting out placements and things like that, i'd love to go and do one as part of a training position, but don't know the first place to look.
 
With a doctorate you still have coursework - but they are case-study based. You also have presentations on your progress in your placement. You spend one day a week (give or take) in uni seeing tutors, having 'professional practice' lectures, ethics lectures etc.

For clinical you have to apply through "The Clearing House, Leeds" - kinda like you do with UCAS. You may have missed the application deadline for this September - don't take my word for it though.

As far as I know, you cannot do an "on the job" thing that offers a masters or PHD - unless you take up a part time option and work alongside.

Have a look at this:

http://www.bps.org.uk/careers/accredited-courses/accredited-courses.cfm?action=postgrad

It gives all post-grad courses in all areas and you can follow the links to find out more.

I don't know anything about how to apply for a Doctorate in ForensicPsych though I'm sorry. The BPS link only shows B'ham doing the doctorate ... not sure why.
 
Yeh ive been through the BPS website. I might actual apply for some training roles via the NHS. I've emailed HMP services to see what they say, but looking through the NHS job website there seem to be some good graduate jobs. I think it is a bit rich thinking I would go straight on to do a PhD, i'd just rather knuckle down into a role and get some experience in, then maybe in x years go on and do a PhD or Masters.
 
If my application is unsuccessful for a doctorate then I plan to apply for an "assistant psychologist" post in the NHS. You can get onto one with just an undergrad degree and they are amazing experience for any future post-grad study. They pay about £15k a year too so are pretty decent. There are loads with the NHS in clinical settings so if you have a half-decent degree you'll find it pretty easy.

Last year there were 21 applications for every one place on a doctorate in clinical and so chances are I'll have to take an assistant post for a few years first.
 
Im a prison officer but no experience of psychology department, I do know that they do a lot of work with lifers and prepare reports for parole boards
 
I've just done 3 months in a Juvenile Prison and I didn't see any evidence of psychologists.
In fact, I debated a point about some of the kids that came into the classrooms because I noticed there was Autism, ADHD and Asperger cases but they just treated them like naughty boys.
I was told that 15 to 18 year olds couldn't be assessed because it was against the law.
Personally I thought that was BS.
 
hlw86 said:
If my application is unsuccessful for a doctorate then I plan to apply for an "assistant psychologist" post in the NHS. You can get onto one with just an undergrad degree and they are amazing experience for any future post-grad study. They pay about £15k a year too so are pretty decent. There are loads with the NHS in clinical settings so if you have a half-decent degree you'll find it pretty easy.

Last year there were 21 applications for every one place on a doctorate in clinical and so chances are I'll have to take an assistant post for a few years first.
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Yeh i'm looking through some jobs now, but even looking at the assistant psychologists posts (only one i could find in the north west), they actually required you to have previous experience as an assistant.
I think my best port of call is to get on as an assistant in either the NHS or with the HMP. I've sent a couple of emails regarding the jobs, and my mum works for the NHS so i'm going to get her to pick me up some job bulletins to get the ball rolling.
 
dmpoole said:
I've just done 3 months in a Juvenile Prison and I didn't see any evidence of psychologists.
In fact, I debated a point about some of the kids that came into the classrooms because I noticed there was Autism, ADHD and Asperger cases but they just treated them like naughty boys.
I was told that 15 to 18 year olds couldn't be assessed because it was against the law.
Personally I thought that was BS.
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That is quite shocking. Done a fair amount of work on Autism spectrum disorders and they are not nice. It seems the support and treatment is lacking in the prisons.
 
CDj-Rossi said:
That is quite shocking. Done a fair amount of work on Autism spectrum disorders and they are not nice. It seems the support and treatment is lacking in the prisons.
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working with Young Offenders is the worse job in the world, i did it for a few weeks, and spent my whole time breaking up fights and dragging prisoners kicking and screaming to the seg
 
CDj-Rossi said:
That is quite shocking. Done a fair amount of work on Autism spectrum disorders and they are not nice. It seems the support and treatment is lacking in the prisons.
Click to expand...

One day I was told I was going into IT to teach CLAIT and there was a lad with Aspergers but none of the staff knew what it was.
I said that I knew what it was and everything had got to be exact what you said to him.
He went onto a PC and asked me what time it was and that was my first mistake.
I told him it was 14:02 but his PC said 14:06 and we couldn't change it.
That started an hour of him being a right pain because the time on the PC was wrong but that is a condition of his Aspergers.
One of the bosses came in, shouted at him, told him he was being stupid and had him marched back to his cell :(
Thats when I asked the question about assessments & psychology reports.

MrMoonX said:
working with Young Offenders is the worse job in the world, i did it for a few weeks, and spent my whole time breaking up fights and dragging prisoners kicking and screaming to the seg
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These are Juveniles and are supposed to be a lot worse.
 
dmpoole said:
These are Juveniles and are supposed to be a lot worse.
Click to expand...

I'll continue my reason.
When I did my induction there were 6 staff and 4 Officers on promotion from other prisons including 2 from a Young Offenders prison.
Oscar One (Head Of Security) asked one of them what was on their belts and they pulled out mace, baton and a kubitan (!).
Oscar One then told them to take them off their belts because they can't use them on kids and working with juveniles would be like nothing they'd seen before :eek:
The Officers went to their respective roles because they'd already done the induction we were doing but two days later all 4 of them asked to go back where they came from.
Out of the remaining 6 only 2 of us remained.
 
dmpoole said:
I'll continue my reason.
When I did my induction there were 6 staff and 4 Officers on promotion from other prisons including 2 from a Young Offenders prison.
Oscar One (Head Of Security) asked one of them what was on their belts and they pulled out mace, baton and a kubitan (!).
Oscar One then told them to take them off their belts because they can't use them on kids and working with juveniles would be like nothing they'd seen before :eek:
The Officers went to their respective roles because they'd already done the induction we were doing but two days later all 4 of them asked to go back where they came from.
Out of the remaining 6 only 2 of us remained.
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Prison officers dont carry mace anywhere, so thats not true, they are however not allowed to carry batons in the juvenile and female estates, and oscar one is not head of security its the orderly officer who is in day to day charge of the establishment
 
MrMoonX said:
Prison officers dont carry mace anywhere, so thats not true, they are however not allowed to carry batons in the juvenile and female estates, and oscar one is not head of security its the orderly officer who is in day to day charge of the establishment
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My bad then but she did mention 3 items and I presumed one was a spray.
Oscar One identified himself has Head Of Security and there are 3 different blokes who do it.
When doing the induction on call signs they also said different prisons had different meanings which I thought was bloody stupid.
I was also told not to use the words message and assistance on the radio unless I meant it.
 
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Sadly people just don't know how to deal with children likes these. That, amongst other things, would be what the psychologist should be there for. To diagnose these problems, and make staff more aware of it.
 
dmpoole said:
My bad then but she did mention 3 items and I presumed one was a spray.
Oscar One identified himself has Head Of Security and there are 3 different blokes who do it.
When doing the induction on call signs they also said different prisons had different meanings which I thought was bloody stupid.
I was also told not to use the words message and assistance on the radio unless I meant it.
Click to expand...

yeah never use message or urgent on the radio, cos you will end up with about 30 screws legging it to your location, i could go into the meaning of each callsign on the phonetic alphabet but im pretty sure that listing each prison callsign and its role on the internet would be a breach of security lol, the only good thing working with juveniles is the soft uniform, man i hate wearing my tie, im always getting pulled up for it, just passed my senior officers exam as well not bad in 5 years.
 
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