Identifying and recruiting prison staff remains a major challenge for all prison administrations across Council of Europe Members states, especially in the post-pandemic period. To address the lack of job applicants in Slovenia, the Council of Europe helped the national Prison Administration enrich the existing recruiting and awareness plan during a meeting held on 5 July 2023 in Ljubliana by:

- providing an analysis of the relevant Council of Europe standards and best European practices concerning the methodology and approaches to be used when reaching out to the public to attract new prison staff; in particular, the policies implemented and challenges faced by the three prison jurisdictions of the UK (Northern Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales) in attracting, recruiting and retaining prison staff;

- advising Slovenian Prison Administration on how to raise public awareness of the prison profession;

- offering recommendations that will be used for the development of a Public Relations policy and practices.

Successful and unsuccessful examples from other jurisdictions were also discussed with the aim of identifying which methods can better fit Slovenian priorities to attract prison staff and, eventually, improve their working conditions. A report with recommendations will summarize the findings of the meeting.

The Council of Europe supports the Slovenian Prison Administration within the framework of the project “Improving the juvenile justice system and strengthening the education and training of penitentiary staff” funded by the European Union via the Technical support instrument and implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission.