Prison Services Pharmacy Technician | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Exeter; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider is seeking a motivated Pharmacy Technician to join their team at HMP Exeter. In this role, you will provide essential medicines optimisation services and administer medications. Applicants should have a relevant pharmacy qualification and the ability to work in a challenging environment. This opportunity includes NHS AfC employment benefits, supports career development, and requires security vetting. The position is an impactful chance to contribute to patient rehabilitation within a multidisciplinary healthcare team.

Benefits

NHS employment benefits, including pension

Career development opportunities

Qualifications

• Must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting.
• Proof of right to work and ID documentation required.
• Experience in pharmacy or healthcare setting preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide a medicines optimisation service to the prison.
• Administer medicines to patients according to valid prescriptions.
• Dispense prescriptions while supervising assistants.

Skills

Compassion

Knowledge of medicines optimization

Teamwork

Excellent communication

Education

Relevant pharmacy qualification

Job description

Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast‑paced work environment? Do you want to work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? As part of the South West Prison Healthcare contract awarded to Oxleas NHS Trust in 2022, we are expanding recruitment and looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Pharmacy Technician to join our friendly team at HMP Exeter.

Our healthcare team has a real impact on promoting health and well‑being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients’ future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.

As part of our pharmacy service (OPS), you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (incl. pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward‑thinking service that encourages career and personal development for all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.

Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide a medicines optimisation service to the prison.
• Provide a medicines administration service to offenders at the medicines administration times as part of a 7‑day per week rota.
• Undertake medicines reconciliation for prisoners admitted to the prison.
• Supervise assistants when in the dispensary in providing dispensing services.
• Act as an accredited checking technician providing final dispensing checks or medicines optimisation qualification.
• Ensure high standards of work in the dispensary, in clinics and when out on the wings, and ensure all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are read and adhered to.
• Assist the Senior Prisons Technician with writing, updating and monitoring the use of medicines optimisation SOPs.

Additional Duties

• Administer medicines to patients against a valid prescription, ensuring this is taken correctly.
• Provide advice to patients about the appropriate use of medicines and promote healthy lifestyles to aid their rehabilitation.
• Dispense prescriptions and stock items, whilst supervising assistants when in the dispensary.
• Engage in stock control activities such as undertaking stock top‑up services and reviewing expiry dates and storage facilities for all medicines, reporting any deficiencies to the prison service pharmacist.

Requirements & Vetting

• All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting as part of the pre‑employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
• Proof of right to work documentation.
• Proof of ID, including one photographic ID.
• Proof of address documentation.
• Non‑UK passport holders must provide correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home Office Share code.
• 5 years address history required; applicants with less than 5 years UK address history and who are not UK passport holders will need to provide a Police Certificate in English from their previous country of residence.
• Applicants who are UK passport holders and who have lived abroad for more than six months during the last three years must provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries they have resided in or visited.

About Oxleas

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings, including district nursing, speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities, and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and work closely with other NHS parts, local councils and the voluntary sector. We run 125 sites across South England, including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We are proud of the care we provide and our people. Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families, guided by our values: We’re Kind, We’re Listening, We’re Caring.

Applicant testimonial – Amanda, Pharmacy Tech: “I really enjoy working in the Pharmacy Service for Oxleas. My role is extremely varied and I work within a very supportive team. I find my role rewarding as it is all about enabling patients’ rehabilitation and I enjoy interacting with patients daily and building relationships with them. Oxleas are a good employer and there are plenty of opportunities to be supported through qualifications and training, which then allows me to progress through different bands within the team.”

This advert closes on Sunday 14 Dec 2025.