Natasha Porter OBE

This piece talks about this likely being created by a lone teenager and AI

Well worth reading this @londoncentric.media piece on the red vs blue school panic, which doesn’t yet seem to have corresponded with any actual incidents

Agree, but think it’s a tie with balmy summer evenings London

Office working north London seems to have decided against working in Christmas week

The politicians are right!

Let's move away from sweets and games consoles as rewards in prison!

Instead let's have industrious environments, high-quality education and work, programmes to help behaviour change, and highly trained expert staff!

Should cost about the same, right?

Writing in @russellwebster.com's blog, Unlocked's CEO and Founder @natashaporter.bsky.social explained the role that our new book Leading Prison Landings: The Unlocked Guide to Jailcraft can play in supporting prison officers to improve their relational practice and have the greatest possible impact

Introducing Leading Prison Landings: The Unlocked Guide to Jailcraft, a training manual for transformational prison officers - Unlocked Graduates Unlocked Graduates is pleased to announce the publication of Leading Prison Landings: The Unlocked Guide to Jailcraft, a training manual for frontline staff, codifying our uniquely successful approach...

Read more here: unlockedgrads.org.uk/news-item/in...

✈️ We hope that this challenges the narrative that being a good prison officer is intrinsic and can't be taught
💡 We also hope this helps professionals working with challenging or vulnerable cohorts in other settings

We wrote the book in a way that means anyone can practice and master the techniques that great prison officers use.

This is HUGE news!

After 9 years of research and testing and analysis, we are FINALLY releasing this @unlockedgrads.bsky.social book! Harry Fletcher-Wood is the brilliant co-author, and there's even a foreword by the amazing Alison Liebling! 👊

Just seen this. Really hope you’re okay and being well taken care of.

Really struggling to understand how people can be AGAINST legislation that limits children’s access to pornography and extreme violence online. Especially because we know unfettered internet access is damaging children and our society, and is giving easy access to predators.

Me TOO! Actually just the microsecond to decide was only slightly less insulting though…

Surely I still look about 17?!

Low key offended that the Bluesky age verification thing took about a millisecond to work out from scanning my face that I am an adult.
Also though, quite brilliant that this has been introduced!

Such a lovely evening with Public First / Stonehaven celebrating the arrival of summer! Loved catching up with so many of the best people 🙌
Also V&A is just the best place for an evening of summer drinks 💕

Delighted to be invited by @thefea.bsky.social to speak to a group of founders and CEOs about setting up a board of trustees.
I have an incredible board at @unlockedgrads.bsky.social, and also lucky to be on a number of brilliant boards, so it was great to share what I’ve seen work and not!

'We must get real about how much support many prisoners need'
‪@natashaporter.bsky.social‬ of Unlocked Graduates warns that David Gauke's prisoner early release plan needs to unlock opportunities, not just doors

Early release incentive could fix broken prison education Plan to reward prisoners for engaging in education with early release must unlock real opportunities, not just doors

Take a look at my piece in @feweek.bsky.social on why the proposed incentives to get prisoners engaging in education have the potential to be incredible, but how easy it will be to screw the whole thing up (and of course, how to make sure it isn’t!)

feweek.co.uk/early-prison...

Love seeing this! HMP Manchester had an urgent notification about 6 months ago (prison equivalent of special measures), and @unlockedgrads.bsky.social participants there really wanted to help create more rehabilitative opportunities for the prisoners in their care. This is one of those ideas!

‘Fostering was exhausting. But it made our lives so much richer’ For ten years Caroline Scott and her husband were both parents and foster carers. She reveals what it takes to look after traumatised children, and why she adopted one of them

Really brilliant, inspiring piece on how hugely rewarding - as well as challenging - being a foster parent is.
(Also if you’re in London, Now Foster is up and running and offers extra support for new foster parents)

www.thetimes.com/article/f8e4...

Our COO at @unlockedgrads.bsky.social Libby is off on mat leave today, and we are so excited to be welcoming a new smallest person to the wider Unlocked family soon!
I’m really proud to run an organisation where we really support incredible women to have children while in c-suite jobs 💪

Je suis magpie!

Scandi beige: two crisis-hit prisons to convert wings into calming Nordic units | The Observer Independent journalism | News, culture & style | Investigations, analysis, features, ideas, recipes, newsletters & podcasts that make sense of the world

Scandinavia is often an unhelpful comparator for public service reform, but I really believe this model could be transformative.

Frontline staff being empowered and developed so they can lead a culture of rehabilitation is very exciting!

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

‘No evidence’ early prison release scheme will work, expert warns The government’s plan to reduce the prison population will fail without ‘purposeful activity’ in jails, says head of prison officer training scheme

Despite the headline here, I actually think this Gauke review recommendation could be a game changer and am very much in favour - but only if it’s delivered well!

‘No evidence’ early prison release scheme will work, expert warns

www.thetimes.com/article/73ff...

But if government invests properly and really prioritises getting the culture right to deliver this well, I really do believe this could be a game changer.

Without big changes in prison regimes this risks baking in inequity, resulting in those who are already educated / did well in school / are least likely to reoffend getting out of jail earlier, and those who would most benefit from education and purpose being least able to access it.

If this policy is to work, we desperately need a culture of education at the heart of the prison, with frontline staff recruited and trained to support those furthest from educational engagement and success, and then held to account for this.

So firstly we need to be getting prisoners out of their cells and to high quality purposeful activities.

But remember half of all prisoners didn’t get a single qualification at school. We can’t just expect all prisoners to have the skillset to engage in education.

The same report showed that in reception prisons, half of all prisoners spent more than 22 hours in their cell every day, including on a weekday.

How are they going to earn “good time credits” if they can’t even get to purposeful activity?

A reminder that purposeful activity isn’t delivered well in a lot of prisons at the moment. Last year @hmiprisonsnews.bsky.social published a report showing of 38 adult prisons they visited, more than half received the lowest grade of poor, and only one had improved