Surrey County Council
Full job description
The starting salary for this role is £11,237 per annum per annum based on an 18-hour working week. The full-time equivalent salary is £22,475.
One aspect of the work Surrey County Council’s library service carries out is to run a prison library service at four prisons in Surrey. This role will be based primarily at High Down Men’s Prison in Sutton (HMP High Down, Highdown Lane, Sutton SM2 5PJ) and occasionally at Down View Women’s Prison (HMP Downview, Sutton Lane, Sutton SM2 5PD). You may be required to work one evening per week.
The role of Prison Library Assistant will provide you with an opportunity to share your enthusiasm for reading and learning and play an active part in ensuring that library services are available to all. Working in a busy prison library has its challenges, but the meaningful impact that your work will have on people’s lives makes it a highly rewarding career.
As part of the small library team, you will encourage prisoners to use the library effectively for educational, recreational, and legal purposes. Alongside your colleagues, you will help run a lively events and activities programme including book groups, writing groups and author events. You will help implement initiatives such as Reading Ahead and will assist with running the Shannon Trust Turning Pages programme for developing readers.
As well as this, you will encourage prisoners to maintain positive links with their children by helping them record stories to send home and assisting at family days. You will also work closely with the education department and partner agencies to provide an integrated Library service.
About the team
The team at each prison library consists of a Prison Librarian, who is responsible for managing the team, a Senior Prison Library Assistant, Prison Library Assistants, and Prisoner Orderlies. You will be expected to work on your own initiative, helping take responsibility for the library in the absence of the Prison Librarian (including supervising the Prisoner orderlies).
About you
To succeed in this role, you’ll need excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to remain calm under pressure in a sometimes-volatile environment.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to answer the following questions along with uploading your CV:
What are your motivations for applying?
Why do you think it is important for prisons to have libraries?
What do you think the challenges would be working in a prison environment?
How would you encourage prisoners to develop a love for reading and learning?
Answers to application questions will be scored and used for shortlisting purposes.
At Surrey, our values and behaviours are just as important as our skills and abilities. They shape who we are as an organisation. Find out more about the values we follow.
For more information please find the full job description below and refer to this before submitting your application. We also invite you to read our Life at Surrey handbook to see insights of the culture at Surrey and how as a valued employee, you can help shape our Council.
Job Details
Additional Information
The job advert closes at 23:59 on 08/10/2023.
Contact Details
For an informal discussion please contact Rhiannon Stygal by e-mail at [email protected].
We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.
Benefits
From flexible working to job sharing (where possible) we are committed to providing a healthy work life balance. A laptop and mobile will be supplied if applicable to your role. You will benefit from 26 days annual leave, rising to 28 days after 2 years’ service, a generous local government salary related pension, as well as the option to join our car lease scheme. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit MyBenefits for Surrey County Council staff.
Our Commitment
Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:
The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form
Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.
We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.