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<p>Currently, initial training of newly recruited prison officers begins with an eight
week Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) course. This includes two weeks officers
spend in their prison, an induction week and a week of prison based learning. The
training provides new officers with a foundation level of training in all core skill
areas including interpersonal skills, mental health awareness, equality, violence
reduction and safer custody, alongside the more traditional security awareness and
practical skills needed to be a prison officer.</p><p> </p><p>In recognition of the
complexity of the role of a prison officer, NOMS plans to increase initial training
to twelve weeks. Newly recruited officers will spend 10 weeks at a NOMS learning centre
and 2 weeks at their designated prison. This revised course will have an expanded
content in relation to safer custody and mental health issues, and there will be a
bespoke supporting qualification aimed to prepare new entrant officers to deliver
in a rehabilitative culture. There will be more emphasis on building stronger staff-prisoner
relationships, with prison officers acting as motivating role models and positively
reinforcing values, attitudes and behaviours in order to change their lives.</p><p>
</p><p>NOMS attaches great importance to the continuing professional development of
prison officers, and the range of learning and development opportunities available
to staff supports this. NOMS provides specialist training in areas such as Offender
Management, Safer Custody, Use of Force, Hostage Negotiator and Intelligence while
generic training is available via Civil Service Learning. Each prison is responsible
for assessing the training needs of its officers in order to achieve its business
objectives.</p><p> </p><p>The content of all NOMS’ learning programmes is regularly
reviewed and updated to reflect policy and legislative changes and the changing needs
of the organisation. We are adopting a more flexible approach to learning, for example,
e-learning has been introduced to support face to face learning programmes; prison
officers complete knowledge based workbooks during their initial training.</p><p>
</p><p>There are currently no plans to consider a vocational degree programme for
prison officer training.</p>
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