Former Civil Servants can apply to come back to the Prison Service through

• Re-instatement - this means returning in the same substantive grade as that held before resignation
• Re-employment - this means returning in an equivalent, higher or lower grade;
• Recruitment - applicants who are successful through a Recruitment scheme may be offered either re-instatement or re-employment

No individual has an automatic right to re-appointment unless they are returning:

• after service with the European Institutions
• after service with HM Forces. (Can only be used under specific arrangements set out in the Reserve Forces (Safeguard of Employment Act) 1985); or
• following Parliamentary candidature

The Civil Service Commissioners' Recruitment Code permits some re-appointments. Area Managers/Governors/Head of Group can re-appoint within normal levels of devolved authority except for psychologists. In addition Governors may re-appoint at senior or principal officer level subject to the former member of staff meeting the eligibility criteria listed below.

All applicants for re-appointment must:-

• have been originally recruited by fair and open competition
• meet the current competencies required for the level of work offered
• have successfully completed probation in a previous appointment;
• not have been dismissed for attendance, poor performance or misconduct. In cases where someone is seeking re-appointment after being dismissed following a criminal conviction and the conviction is overturned on appeal, the guidance in the Conduct and Discipline PSO must be referred to.
• meet the normal requirements in respect of health, nationality and character for the grade. All principal, senior and prison officer re-appointees must pass the fitness test before being appointed
• confirm they are not a member of a racist organisation,
• be security cleared where necessary, as this lapses automatically for anyone out of the Service for longer than 6 months
• satisfy the requirements of the normal basic check procedure, including enhanced checks where required.

Recruiters must also: -

• consider carefully whether more suitable candidates may be available. The applicant should be tested against others where this is practicable. If there are any doubts about an applicant's suitability, reappointment should not be used. No individual has a right to re-appointment
• have regard to the nature of the applicant's previous experience, skills and training as a civil servant, and its relevance to the current job.
• check the reasons for resignation, consulting the former employing unit from which the applicant resigned to determine whether there are any reasons why the applicant may not be offered re-appointment;
• treat staff who have resigned to take employment with companies managing private sector prisons on the same basis as any other potential re-appointee;
• before an appointment letter is issued ask Superannuation Service for advice on the effects of possible re-appointment as this could have serious impact on the individual's current or future superannuation position.
• notify the Paymaster of all cases of re-employment. They will take any necessary action if the person concerned is the subject of an earmarking order.

Where an applicant

• was previously retired on medical grounds, the approval of the nominated occupation health provider must be obtained before re-appointment is offered.
• left the Civil Service under an assisted package, such as early retirement or redundancy, they should not be re-employed if this was a condition of the scheme under which they left. If they are seeking re-employment after receiving an assisted package they may, in some cases, be required to surrender part or all of the compensation paid. In this case an estimate must be obtained from Superannuation Service, who will advise about methods of repayment or recovery.
• Is applying to be re-appointed as a prison officer and has been out of service for longer than 3 years they must be retrained, this to be made clear in the schedule.

As a permitted exception to the normal rules of open and fair competition details of all re-appointments must be recorded on the exceptions register.

All re-appointees must

• have their starting pay on re-appointment, calculated by Payroll Management Unit for staff in establishments and the Headquarters Personnel Team for staff in Headquarters.
• have the starting pay reflect any exceptional relevant experience gained during the break in service,
• be issued with a model re-appointment letter and schedule for the grade. The letter and schedule must be amended as follows to reflect conditions of employment applying on re-appointment.

The following changes must be made to the schedule:

section on continuity of employment
Your previous employment with [post/location] will count as part of your continuous period of employment which therefore began on [REVISED CALCULATED SENIORITY DATE] for the purpose of the Employment Protection legislation.

section on probation
Re-appointees are not subject to probation and no reference must be included in the schedule.

For prison officers only the schedule must state whether re-training is required.

Section containing details about annual leave
For shift working staff other than OSGs:-

Shift workers in the Prison Service record their annual leave allowance in hours. Your annual leave allowance is calculated as the number of days annual leave allowance (22, 25 or 30) times your gross conditioned hours divided by 5 (e.g. 42/5). For example, if you have 25 days annual leave and work a 42 hour week, your annual leave in hours is 25 x 42/5 = 210 hours. In addition you will be entitled to public and privilege holidays falling within your period of employment. These will be expressed in hours and added to your annual leave allowance.

For OSGs please use wording within OSG schedule C, but proportion both leave allowance and public and privilege holidays to the length of the casual appointment.

Section about pension
Details about pension arrangements must reflect the guidance given in the Guide to Civil Service Pensions.

All candidates must have a revised seniority date calculated according to the following example

Joined	28.4.80
Resigned	27.7.85
Re-appointed	24.2.86

a) Add up the total number of days that the person was out of service, remembering to take account of leap years if applicable. In the above example Officer Smith was out of service from 28.7.85 to 23.2.86, a total of 211 days.

b) The revised seniority date is achieved by adding the number of days out of service into the date the person first joined. In the above example 211 days is added to 28.4.80 giving a revised seniority date of 25.11.80.

A revised annual leave allowance must be calculated on the basis of the revised seniority date.