29th April 2025
In September last year, Unlocked Graduates launched ChangeMakers, our new middle leadership development programme to transform the quality of middle leadership in prisons. This programme will provide custodial managers (“CMs”) with the tools required to lead culture change and drive rehabilitation on the landings.
Since 2017, Unlocked has placed nearly 900 future leaders in 38 different prisons across England and Wales on our graduate leadership development programme. Our participants are making a real difference on the landings, driving system reform and helping to break cycles of reoffending. However, we continue to see one consistent barrier to the impact that band 3 officers across the country are able to have: a lack of high-quality day-to-day leadership.
Custodial managers are the most senior uniformed members of staff in prisons. An excellent middle manager can radically improve outcomes for an entire wing, driving rehabilitative change, while helping to shape the prison service’s future leaders. Despite this, most CMs receive limited training. To address this, we have developed the Unlocked ChangeMakers programme, a unique development scheme for CMs, supporting them to become inspirational leaders.
“We know that effective middle leaders are vital for efforts to break cycles of reoffending in our prisons”, said Natasha Porter OBE, CEO and Founder of Unlocked Graduates. “The Unlocked ChangeMakers programme is developing and supporting inspirational custodial managers, helping them to lead rehabilitative change on the landings. We are incredibly grateful for the support from the Garfield Weston Foundation which has allowed us to launch this pilot programme, and we are delighted to see the impact that our first cohort of custodial managers are already having.”
Investing in our CMs has never been more important, and the opportunity provided by Unlocked to use their established and tested approach to drive personal growth and set culture within custodial settings is the perfect opportunity to develop our CMs into our future leaders.
Governing Governor, ChangeMakers Partner Prison
Our first cohort of 23 CMs from six prisons across the country are receiving bespoke training from our specialist team of trainers, coaches and curriculum designers who have world-leading expertise in leadership development within the prison service. Over the course of this 12-month programme, there will be a total of four residential training sessions, as well as access to specialist one-to-one coaching and group supervisions.
The programme focuses on a combination of practical learning and evidence-based theory to support participants to lead change in their prisons. ChangeMakers also draws substantially on learnings from our graduate programme, including the role played by our team of Mentoring Prison Officers who support and coach our participants, helping them to have the greatest impact possible.
“We are pleased to introduce our new middle leadership development programme, Unlocked ChangeMakers”, said Samantha Farr, Associate Director of Middle Leadership at Unlocked Graduates. “Over the past few years, we have developed a bespoke programme designed to support custodial managers to be excellent middle leaders. Our evidence-led curriculum will provide them with the tools to drive rehabilitative change in their prisons, helping to break cycles of reoffending.”