23709 - Activities Unit Manager (AUM) - Neurodiversity Support Manager

Ministry of Justice; Stoke-on-Trent; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

The Ministry of Justice is seeking a senior manager to lead neurodiversity support for prisoners, driving a whole-system approach across Education, Skills and Work to enable progression through sentence and community transitions. The role requires collaboration with education, training providers and staff to embed consistent neurodiversity practices.

It is non-rotational and non-operational with no line management responsibilities, and will liaise with multiple prison teams to ensure

Responsibilities

• Improve neurodiversity support quality toward outstanding, informing an ESW improvement plan.
• Develop and maintain a neurodiversity strategy in collaboration with HoESW, LSM, HoRR and partners.
• Create systems to deliver ESW activity for all cohorts; test solutions with SMT.
• Collect and analyse local neurodiversity data to tailor provision for diverse prisoners.
• Track progress of neurodivergent prisoners in education and work; identify and address gaps.
• Case manage prisoners needing extra support to access ESW opportunities.
• Share neurodiversity information with prison teams lawfully and appropriately.
• Ensure activity availability and reasonable adjustments for neurodivergent prisoners.
• Raise neurodiversity awareness within the prison.
• Upskill staff to support a whole-prison approach via briefings and 1-2-1 processes.
• Work with stakeholders to help release-ready neurodivergent prisoners.

Job description

23709 - Activities Unit Manager (AUM) - Neurodiversity Support Manager

This is a Management job in an establishment.

All staff have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The post holder must undertake the appropriate level of training and is responsible for ensuring that they understand and work within the safeguarding policies of the organisation.

Summary

The post holder will be responsible for leading on supporting prisoners with needs arising from neurodivergence.

Developing and implementing, through close collaboration with stakeholders, a ‘whole system’ principle is of paramount importance, with the focus firmly on supporting individuals to achieve and progress through Education, Skills and Work pathways throughout their sentence. The Neurodiversity Support Manager (NSM) will liaise with the Head of Education

Skills and Work (HoESW), Learning and Skills Manager (LSM), Industry Managers (IMs), Activity Managers (AM) and the education provider to ensure prisoners are supported to engage with education skills and work or not, and that they continue to be supported in the community, including by the probation teams.

The post holder will provide support and guidance to ensure that all staff and stakeholders share the same vision and ethos of neurodiversity.

The post holder will ensure that actions across education, skills and work (ESW) within their prison support a whole prison improvement approach which supports wider improvements across the estate.

This is a non-rotational, non-operational job with no line management responsibilities.

Responsibilities, Activities and Duties

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

• Focus on improving and ensuring that the quality of neurodiversity support and provision is at least good and moving towards outstanding. This is to include assessment of quality to inform the prison education, skills and work improvement plan which can be applied across various learning channels, e.g. classroom, industries, work areas, workshops, gym etc.
• Develop and maintain neurodiversity needs strategy for the prison, incorporating and working with key stakeholders. This should include as a minimum: Head of Education Skills and Work (HoESW) LSM, Head of Reducing Reoffending (HoRR), Provider education and/or curriculum managers (including regional leads), Employment lead, New Futures Network (NFN) broker, Prison Work Coach, Head of Offender Management Unit, libraries, Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG), activities, gym, industries manager, key worker.
• Develop and maintain the systems and structures to ensure that delivery of all Education, Skills and Work activity is appropriate to all cohorts. Recommend and test related solutions leading into an improvement plan. Working with Senior Management Team (SMT) to implement, maintain, invest and update it as necessary.
• Manage the collection and collating of data on neurodiversity at local level. Continually analyse and evaluate current practice for how neurodiversity provision is tailored to the needs of a wide range of prisoners, including those who are hard to reach, vulnerable prisoners, and those for whom English is not their first language.
• Track the progress of neurodivergent prisoners in education, learning and work (including kitchen, horticulture, waste management industries/ workshops, wing work and orderly/peer roles), analyse data and identify any participation and achievement gaps and address these.
• Case manage prisoners who require additional support to access education, skills and work opportunities within the prison to ensure it is both appropriate and helpful.
• Ensuring individual prisoners’ neurodiversity related information is shared, appropriately and lawfully, with relevant prison teams, e.g. PEF, CIAG, LSM, AM Health Care.
• Ensure that the needs of neurodivergent prisoners are considered in terms of availability of activities, appropriate adaptations and reasonable adjustment as required and sufficient places by working with the LSM, activities and industries managers.
• Raise awareness of Neurodiversity in the prison.
• Upskilling workforce to support a whole prison approach to supporting prisoners with neurodivergence using full staff briefings, internal communications and 1-2-1 processes but the list of opportunity is not exhaustive.
• Work with key stakeholders to ensure that neurodivergent prisoners receive the support and advice that they need to help them prepare for a release into the community.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re-examination under the Job Evaluation Scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the job holder.

An ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence through the medium of English or (where specified in Wales) Welsh.