Unlocked ChangeMakers, our impact
Transforming middle leadership
The Unlocked ChangeMakers programme is transforming the quality of middle leadership across the prison service. Building on the success of our graduate programme, we launched this programme in 2024, and our pilot cohort graduated in summer 2025, achieving some incredible milestones.
This programme explored the core elements of effective middle leadership in prisons, combining evidence-based theory with practical learning. Following the programme, participants reported increased confidence in their leadership skills, while those that they line manage are telling us that they are experiencing better management on the landings, and senior leaders in our partner prisons are also reporting positive impacts.
I have seen a marked shift in attitude since she began the ChangeMakers programme. She has had a real passion for trying to improve the wing for officers and prisoners alike.
Direct Report of a ChangeMakers Participant
Our impact
We are incredibly proud of the impact that the ChangeMakers programme is having in prisons around the country. Effective middle leaders can radically improve outcomes for an entire wing, driving rehabilitative change and accelerating the impact of the staff they work with – ultimately improving outcomes for the prisoners in their care.
I can see their confidence growing through their response to the challenging situations they face daily, and their ideas for how we continuously improve our delivery.
Governing Governor, ChangeMakers Partner Prison
We remain committed to measuring the impact of our programmes, and our expert data and insights team continue to collect and interrogate the evidence to understand what solutions are working in prisons. You can read more about Unlocked Graduates’s impact here.
Find out more about the success of the ChangeMakers pilot year.
Leadership growth
In a survey of our first cohort of ChangeMakers participants, 100% of respondents felt that they had grown as a leader as a result of the ChangeMakers programme.
Confidence in the role
In a survey, 100% of those who line manage custodial managers in our first ChangeMakers cohort reported that they saw an improved confidence in the CM role from their direct reports following completion of the programme.
Driving culture change
95% of our first cohort of ChangeMakers reported an improvement in their ability to drive culture change in their prisons as a result of their time on the ChangeMakers programme.