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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

At a time when we need better staff retention for safer prisons and lower reoffending, this shows the Unlocked model works! All officers should be recruited on the basis of values and invested in with high quality training and support that matches the challenges on the role.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

After 2 years, when the Unlocked support ends, retention reverts to being in line with officers recruited via the standard route.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

And this increases to 30pp when taking into account those who left who reasons considered beyond Unlocked’s control’s control!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Officers recruited through Unlocked are significantly more likely to stay during their first 2 years (whilst Unlocked is responsible for their support and development)! 79% of Unlocked compared to 61% for the comparison prison officer group! 18pp higher!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

People. I have some VERY exciting news. The Ministry of Justice have published the latest @unlockedgrads.bsky.social retention stats directly comparing retention outcomes for Unlocked officers vs those entering the same prisons via standard routes…

static.klipy.com

Pigeon Spying with Binoculars and Popcorn

ALT: Pigeon Spying with Binoculars and Popcorn

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

So great to see this write up of Unity wing at HMP Pentonville in Inside Time! This is one of two prison wings where we are running a pilot to test what happens when you apply the @unlockedgrads.bsky.social model of recruitment and training to an area of a prison. insidetime.org/comment/peop...

insidetime.org

People, not houseplants, make ‘Scandi wing’ work

In March, Inside Time exclusively revealed plans for ‘Scandinavian-style’ wings at two London prisons, Pentonville and Wandsworth. They are up and running – and Raymond Smith is the first journalis…

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Brilliant day at Research Ed with some of my favourite education people! I was presenting on what teachers can learn from the best prison officers around how to build positive relationships with some of the hardest to reach. #REd26

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Started as a graduate scheme 🎓 Developed world-leading expertise recruitment and training prison officers 👮‍♀️ Become a model - which this RCT is testing 📖 And the indicative results are very exciting indeed! 🙌

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Thought it was a blatant attempt to persuade the EU to let us back in

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Trying to increase inclusivity by lowering standards is at the heart of how we fail the most disadvantaged in our society.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

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?

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Reposted by Natasha Porter OBE

Unlocked Graduates @unlockedgrads.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

✈️ 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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

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! 👊

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

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.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Me TOO! Actually just the microsecond to decide was only slightly less insulting though… Surely I still look about 17?!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

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!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

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 💕

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

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!

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Reposted by Natasha Porter OBE

FE Week @feweek.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

'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

feweek.co.uk

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

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...

feweek.co.uk

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

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!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

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...

thetimes.com

‘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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

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 💪

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

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...

observer.co.uk

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

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...

thetimes.com

‘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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

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.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

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.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

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.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

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.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

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?

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

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

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

This from the Gauke sentencing review is exactly what is needed - sentencing which recognises and rewards prisoners’ engagement in purposeful activity and education whilst in prison. Now we need to build a prison system which can effectively deliver this.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Bare feet does feel like a step beyond.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

I am on a train and then man next to me has just taken his shoes and socks off, and the man opposite has now taken his shoes off. Has this become a thing that people do?!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

This is a must read article for anyone considering school mental health interventions. It also should make us more wary if considering how universal “trauma informed approaches” are rolled out across schools. Targeted approaches delivered by experts seem to have the best evidence.

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Anyway, this is a a great report from Impetus, especially for those of you fellow cool kids who LOVE a deep data dive… impetus-org.files.svdcdn.com/production/a...

impetus-org.files.svdcdn.com

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Third - check out the racial disparity, particularly within ethnic groups. If you need evidence about the benefits of not having such broad ethnicity buckets in public data collection, this is your report… (At the launch, there was deep dive into gap between Pakistani and Bangladeshi outcomes)

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Second fascinating finding was the geographic disparity. A young person in Hartlepool on pupil premium is 146% more likely to be NEET than the average!

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

(AND as an aside, I remain CONVINCED that supporting all kids to leave school with decent qualifications, particularly in English and maths, is the single most impactful commitment to social justice that we can make.)

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Natasha Porter OBE @natashaporter.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

For me most important finding is that passing school exams is the single most effective protective factor to stop a kid dropping out of the system as a young adult. (Not having qualifications is also really prevalent in our prisoner population by the way)

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