Custodial Care organisations work in the following key areas:

• holding adult and young prisoners securely
• reducing the risk of prisoners re-offending
• providing custody and escort services
• monitoring offenders in the community (via electronic tagging for example)

There are approximately 72,700 employees working in the sub-sector, across an estimated 179 organisations.  85% of staff are employed in the public sector and 15% are in the private sector.  Custodial Care makes up approximately 13% of the sector employee base.  44% of organisations in the sub-sector report employing volunteers.

Workforce profile:

• 31% of UK prison services staff are female, but only 21% in Scotland and 26% in Wales
• an increase in the proportion of females in the workforce are expected
• 36% of the workforce in Scotland, Wales and England are aged 35-44 years
• 13% of staff are aged over 55 years
• 23% of the prison service workforce are aged 16-34 years, compared with 37% in the UK workforce
• 5% of the UK prison staff are from minority ethnic groups

A small increase in the number of employees is expected in custodial care over the next few years.  Although the number of offenders is expected to increase, further staff will not be needed.  However, staff roles are changing and the prison and probation service will be consolidated.  In 2003/2004, there were 7,269 new recruits to the prison service in England and Wales, equal to 15% of the total workforce.  46% of the new entrants were female. 

There will be a substantial reduction in the number of employees in HM Revenue and Customs of approximately 1,200 jobs.

45% of the custodial care workforce are employed within associate professional and technical occupations, 19% work within administrative/secretarial occupations, and 16% are employed within elementary occupations.  Occupational recruitment difficulties can not be reported as survey numbers are too low.

21% of organisations report internal skills gaps, 54% reports gaps in IT and computing skills.

Source: Custodial Care SNA 2006, Skills for Justice Briefing Paper 2006, Custodial Care LMI 2005 and UK Skill Needs Assessment 2005

For data on the prison service by country, and information on skills shortages and hard-to-fill vacancies in custodial care see:

UK prison service workforce by country, 2004

Custodial care skill shortages and hard-to-fill vacancies