Job Description
Head of Connections Services
Location: HMP Millsike, Yorkshire
Salary: £45,000 - £50,000 per annum
As part of a ground-breaking and hugely transformational partnership with Mitie Care & Custody and People Plus, Forward have been successful in its bid to be a top table delivery partner in the operation of HMP Millsike, a brand-new Resettlement Prison situated on land opposite the existing HMP Full Sutton, currently in construction and due to open in April 2025.
This represents a chance for Forward to evolve our mission in a way that will be an integral part of a completely new way of delivering prisons within the prison system, and one that will be a huge reputational boost for our organisation, as the first to have a top table seat in our sector.
At HMP Millsike we will be delivering Connections Services. Our Connections services are a suite of interventions for men in recovery, men seeking greater wellbeing and connection with others, partners, friends and families of men in custody, the children of men in custody, and men who have no visitors. For the first time in prison history, Forward Trust will run the entire Visits programme on behalf of the prison including in-person and virtual official visits, family wellbeing days, specialist visits, family dining, and family interventions, with indoor and outdoor space and facilities for all ages and needs.
What you will be doing?
A key stakeholder and leader in HMP Millsike's Reducing Reoffending strategy, working closely with Residence and Wellbeing, Practice Plus, Tees Weir Valley Health and People Plus, you will deliver Forward Trust's innovative 'One Millsike' offer. You will mobilise and develop our Forward Trust interventions, working in partnership with Mitie Care and Custody and HMPPS to successfully mobilise, open and operate HMP Millsike.
Mobilisation has already begun, and the first prisoners will arrive in April 2025.
Connections Family & Relationship Services: Delivering all Visits functions with Mitie Care and Custody Prisoner Custody Officers delivering the Forward Trust Visits offer alongside our Connections Visits and Family and Relationships / Visits Teams. Three family and/or relationships interventions (MPACT, Parenting Programme, Relationships Matter). Running the Family and Relationships Unit, again with Prisoner Custody Officers working alongside Forward Trust's Team. Ensuring all services are fully supported by trained prisoner Peer Mentors. Managing services for families, visitors, and children which includes managing Schools and Local Authority Liaison, and providing catering, a foodbank, and specialist play facilitators for visitors and their children.
Connections Health & Wellbeing Services: Forward Trust's Health and Wellbeing Model of peer support across the whole prison, where Health & Wellbeing Practitioners work alongside trained prisoner Health & Wellbeing Champions to promote access to and deliver workshops on wellbeing and recovery alongside HMP Millsike's substance misuse provider services.
Connections Supporting & Sustaining Recovery Services: Creating a strong recovery ethos (or ecosystem) across the prison with a particular focus on our Designated Recovery Wing (The Bridge Unit) as well as Recovery Zones, working with and alongside the separately commissioned Drug and Alcohol Service (part of Whole Healthcare). Delivering our Substance Dependence Treatment Programmes, supporting participants with substance dependence, delivering an intensive 20-week structured programme meeting CSAAP standards, as well as Incentivised Substance Free Living (ISFL). The Bridge Unit builds on Forward's experience of running Recovery Wings in a number of other prisons. Ensuring a thriving recovery mutual aid and stakeholder network, promoting engagement with Forward Connect post-release.
What are we looking for?
* Sector and role-specific experience is a must, as is a recovery, rehabilitation and restorative mindset and values system.
* An exceptional stakeholder manager that enjoys working with all functions. The ability to communicate and influence across all delivery partners both internal, as well as statutory.
* Someone that can roll up their sleeves and get things done, as well as zoom out and think strategically.
* The ability to manage people indirectly, across and above.
* Organised, process and action-driven with a strong commercial awareness.
* Able to manage complex projects.
* Able to set a culture, to do what is right, not what is easy.
* An ability to take complex information and make it understandable to all.
* Strong interpersonal skills, flexibility, self-motivation, and enthusiasm are essential, as is the ability to meet deadlines.
What we offer:
* Training and development opportunities
* Flexible working
* Simply Health Cashback Scheme
* Season Ticket Loan Scheme
* Cycle to work scheme
* Crisis Loan Scheme
* 3 x Wellbeing Days (pro rata'd for part-time employees)
* Access to Blue Light Card
* 25 days (rising to 30 with length of service) Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays
* Contributory Pension Scheme
* Death in Service Payment
* Critical Illness Insurance
To Apply:
If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for The Forward Trust, please click apply to be redirected to their website to complete your application.
Please note we reserve the right to close this role early.
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