Prison Nurse Jobs: Now Hiring Across the Midlands, North West, Yorkshire & North East

Looking for prison nurse jobs? Novello has agency shifts available now across the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire and the North East — with your confirmed rate shown in the app before you accept, and a team that helps you get cleared. If you are an experienced prison RGN or RMN, we would love to hear from you today. And if you are weighing up whether secure environments would suit you, everything you need to know is below: where the jobs are, what the work involves, what it pays and how clearance works.

Where we have prison nurse jobs right now

There are 117 prisons in England and Wales, and prison healthcare consistently carries higher nursing vacancy rates than acute or community services — which means steady demand for nurses who hold clearance. Novello books prison nursing shifts across the UK, and right now we are particularly busy in four regions:

• North West — a dense cluster of establishments including HMP Manchester, HMP Liverpool and HMP Styal. We cover Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria.
• Yorkshire — HMP Leeds alone receives around 600 new arrivals a month, and reception prisons are where screening-heavy nursing demand sits. We cover West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire.
• North East — home to a major prison healthcare cluster including HMP Durham, HMP Frankland and HMP Northumberland. We cover County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.
• Midlands — live agency demand at establishments such as HMP Lincoln, HMP Ranby and HMP Stoke Heath. We cover the West Midlands, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire.

Working somewhere else? Register anyway — we book prison shifts nationwide, and new work comes on all the time. Sign up in minutes or call 0333 307 8897 and tell us where you are.

What prison nurses actually do

Healthcare in prison covers the same ground as healthcare in the community — primary care, mental health, substance misuse and long-term conditions — delivered to a population with far greater need. Around 47% of men and 71% of women in prison experience mental health problems, and the average age at death for people in prison is 56, against 81 in the general population. Prison nurses are usually the first point of contact for all of it.

A typical day can include:

• Reception and first-night screening — everyone arriving in custody gets an initial health assessment within 24 hours, covering medication, injuries and existing conditions, with a fuller follow-up within a week.
• Medication rounds — often the biggest fixed point in the day, and a chance to lay eyes on patients who would not otherwise present.
• Nurse-led clinics — chronic disease management, wound care, minor illness and injury.
• Mental health and substance misuse work — withdrawal assessments, ongoing support and close working with in-reach mental health teams.
• Emergency response — healthcare staff carry radios and respond to medical emergencies anywhere in the prison.

The clinical skill set sits closest to community and primary care nursing, and it transfers in both directions. What is different is the autonomy: you make real clinical decisions, quickly, and you see the difference they make.

Who you would actually work for

Since 2013, NHS England has commissioned all healthcare in English prisons. Delivery on the ground is a mix: some prisons are staffed directly by NHS trusts, others by independent and social-enterprise providers delivering NHS-commissioned services — Practice Plus Group and Spectrum Community Health among the largest. In Wales, local health boards provide prison healthcare. As an agency nurse you slot into those teams on a shift basis, working alongside GPs, pharmacists, psychiatrists and prison staff.

What you need to work in a prison

• NMC registration — prisons employ both adult nurses (RGN) and mental health nurses (RMN), along with learning disability and substance misuse backgrounds.
• Enhanced vetting — secure settings require prison security vetting on top of an enhanced DBS check. It is more paperwork than a standard compliance file, and it takes time — allow several weeks. Once you hold clearance you become considerably more valuable to book, because most nurses do not.
• Key training and security induction — you will be trained before you can move around the prison independently, and inducted into how the environment works.
• For agency shifts: prison experience. Permanent employers will often take nurses new to secure settings and support them in — NHS guidance recommends up to a 12-month preceptorship. Agency shifts are different: you are there to hit the ground running, so previous prison experience is essential to work with Novello in these settings.

If you have the experience but not current clearance, that is exactly the gap we help with — our team walks you through the vetting process step by step. See how it works on our prison nursing page.

What prison nursing pays

In the NHS, prison nursing posts typically start at Band 5, with Band 6 for senior and specialist roles. On the agency side, published rate cards for prison nurses in 2025–26 generally run from the mid £20s per hour on weekdays into the high £30s and beyond for Sundays and bank holidays, varying by region, role and shift. Vague “competitive rates” help nobody — with Novello, your confirmed rate is shown in the app before you accept a shift, so you always know exactly what a booking pays.

Already cleared and experienced? You are exactly who our prison teams are asking for. Register today and you could be browsing shifts this week.

Is prison nursing safe?

It is the first question most nurses ask, and it deserves a straight answer. Prisons are structured environments built around safety: healthcare staff are key trained and carry radios, alarm systems run throughout, and prison officers accompany patient movements. You are never working without backup.

That said, it is a different working environment and it is honest to say so. Prisons are noisy — gates, alarms, radio traffic. Many are Victorian buildings with limited clinical space. Some patients will test boundaries, and strong assessment skills and a calm, non-judgemental manner matter as much as clinical knowledge. Nurses who thrive in secure settings tend to be the ones who like thinking on their feet and building trust quickly.

What makes it worth doing

Ask nurses who work in prisons what keeps them there and the answers are consistent: variety, autonomy and impact. You care for people who often find it hard to ask for help, many of whom have not seen a health professional in years — a nurse in prison creates a safe space patients genuinely use. The breadth of the caseload builds skills fast, there are clear routes into non-medical prescribing and minor illness and injury work, and because the clinical work sits so close to primary care, everything you learn carries back out with you.

Common questions

RGN or RMN — which do prisons want?

Both. Given how much of the caseload is mental health and substance misuse, RMNs are in constant demand, but the primary care backbone of the service — clinics, screening, long-term conditions — needs RGNs just as much.

Do I need prison experience for agency shifts?

Yes — for agency work with Novello, prison experience is essential, because you are booked to be effective from day one. If you are new to secure environments, a permanent or fixed-term post with an NHS trust or provider is the usual way in; support for new starters can include up to a 12-month preceptorship.

How long does clearance take?

Longer than a standard compliance file — allow several weeks, sometimes more. Start it before you need it: nurses who already hold clearance get first pick of the work. We guide you through every step.

What happens in an emergency?

Healthcare staff carry radios and are part of the prison’s emergency response. When a medical emergency is called anywhere in the establishment, a designated response nurse attends with officer support. It is one of the parts of the job experienced prison nurses value most — genuine acute work with a clear team structure around it.