I was mugged this evening on the tube. I am 5 months pregnant and very recently off bedrest, but decided to give chase. Sadly they got away.
@BTPLondon
gave chase, found the tube they had run onto, caught them redhanded, arrested them, and even dropped me home.
Absolute HEROES!
Pretty disappointed to hear today, after a 15 month wait, that the boys who robbed me when I was pregnant, laughing at me as I wept and begged them to give my phone back, won't be taken to court. This is despite the whole thing being on camera and some sterling work by
@BTPLondon
I was mugged this evening on the tube. I am 5 months pregnant and very recently off bedrest, but decided to give chase. Sadly they got away.
@BTPLondon
gave chase, found the tube they had run onto, caught them redhanded, arrested them, and even dropped me home.
Absolute HEROES!
Don’t normally share personal stuff here, but this felt like it was worth making an exception for 💕
Thanks to all the staff at
@uclh
for amazing support and care!
As it begins to tip into the high 30s and my son’s school has an early close, here is a diagram of a pretty typical prison cell.
Many cells don’t have windows which open properly or proper ventilation.
Many have 2 people sharing.
Imagine spending 22 hours locked in here today
Incredibly proud to be awarded an OBE for services to His Majesty’s Prison and Probation service in the New Years Honours List. Unlocked Graduates has always been an incredible team effort, so a huge thank you to everyone who has helped make this work such a success.
@LuciousXVIII
@billyboii786
@BTPLondon
And you were on your way home and delayed your journey to look after me when no one else had helped! I was thinking about you today and how grateful I was that you stepped in. Thank you so much for your support! You're an absolute hero too 💫
Just a quick ask to all you tube travelling, london dwelling people: if you sit down (especially in a priority seat) PLEASE look up and around every once in a while to check someone who needs it more than you isn’t stood in front of you. And if they are then please do get up!
Every year at Christmas prison staff are at work. It’s always tough, but this year is particularly hard. Lots of staff are isolating, so those still standing are having to pull incredible heroics to look after prisoners. And prisoners are still in their cells almost all the time.
@SteveDoherty1
Showed a year 8 class a video I hadn’t pre vetted on YouTube which ended with “YOU F***ING C***S” coming up in huge letters on the screen, at which point I freaked out and paused the video for about 20 seconds while trying to close the window 🤦♀️
There are thousands of prison officers working in these prisons today, including hundreds of current participants on
@unlockedgrads
. They are on the landings. In uniform. Trying to keep prisoners cared for and safe.
Please be thinking of them because they’re there for all of us
Just reminded that 312,000 children have a parent in prison each year
65% of boys with a parent in prison end up in the criminal justice system themselves
312K is a big number. It's about half of all children in a year group. Or 13 children per school.
But the cycle can be broken
It was an incredible experience to go to Buckingham Palace yesterday and receive an OBE for services to the prison service. A huge thank you to all at
@unlockedgrads
: participants and alumni, as well as my amazing colleagues at HQ who work so tirelessly to help prisoners.
@AmberRoseGill
They’ll all go back to the original girls, except Andrew and Jay. Jacques will tell Paige she is stupid for being upset when he came back to her, and then blame it on how deep his feelings are for her and how much they scared him. Luca will tell Gemma everything.
@SteveDoherty1
Then asked them to never tell anyone what had just happened before realising how inappropriate it was as a role model to be asking children to keep secrets and then freaking out and apologising for asking them to keep it secret...
Fair to say they found the whole thing hilarious
Just got my phone back and going through the responses to this - thank you so much for all the messages.
As an update,
@BTP
we’re not just heroes on the day - the support they’ve provided in the aftermath has been incredible. Thankfully my baby and I were both unharmed.
I think this is a real mistake. I was permanently excluded twice, and I’m glad I was because i) I needed to have that boundary, and ii) ultimately mainstream schooling was unsuitable and damaging for me.
The real problem here is quality of alternative provision post exclusion.
This is such a dreadfully sad time for
@unlockedgrads
. I am really hoping that the government can work with us to find a solution so we don't lose this incredible initiative from prisons across England and Wales.
There’s a real misinterpretation of
@Doug_Lemov
’s techniques here and how they improve classroom behaviour, and that is the absolute decency and care that sits at the heart of them. Part of why they work so well is because they are so respectful🧵
This is a GREAT policy - the ability to complete an apprenticeship in prison is a game changer BUT there has to be a focus on high-quality apprenticeships (which is a challenge for the whole apprenticeship agenda). Hoping the measure linked to employment does this sufficiently.
We're making apprenticeships available to prisoners for the first time so that more offenders are job-ready on release.
Creating work opportunities for offenders reduces reoffending and protects the public from crime.
Read more from
@nadhimzahawi
and I:[]
I am SO pleased to see that the lead comment piece in
@thetimes
today is Matthew Parris on prisoners serving IPP sentences. It’s an issue which the public need to understand and be outraged by.
Prison officers are on the frontline in this pandemic. Day after day they are risking their own wellbeing to look after others and keep society safe.
Too often they are forgotten.
Please think of prison officers as you clap for keyworkers later 👏
Tonight we clap for our Unlocked Mentoring Prison Officers 👏, who are temporarily heading back to the frontline
@hmpps
Their experience and dedication to their vital jobs will be welcome back on the wings. Come back soon!
#clapforkeyworkers
#HiddenHeroes
Jonathan Aitken is absolutely right to call for prison officers to be prioritised for Coronavirus vaccines. Many are working with high risk people in very confined conditions, and as Aitken points out, increasing numbers of prisons are now seeing outbreaks
@gmhales
@BTPLondon
I've just been told that the case won't be going to court and nothing further will be happening. I didn't want a particular outcome other than wanting them to hear how I felt as a victim so they might think about those consequences if thinking about doing similar in future.
Big news story this week??? Tough call, but surely has to be
@unlockedgrads
being the HIGHEST NEW ENTRY in The Times Top 100 graduate employers, going straight in at number 49!!!
Email from my son’s school a few day’s ago about a year 1 violin concert. My son is in year 1 so I ask him who is performing at this concert. He says he is.
It transpires he has been learning the violin SINCE SEPTEMBER but has just never thought to mention it to me or his dad.
Nothing like being in prison on a beautiful sunny day to be reminded that many prisoners are still in their cells for at least 23 hours a day under Covid restricted regimes, and some cells get seriously hot on days like this, especially those with windows that don't open
Trying to put into words what I really like about this programme. I think it’s that it shows how simultaneously incredibly vulnerable, insecure, challenging and potentially dangerous, as well as human and full of potential so many prisoners are
#thechoir
An organised visit to prison to try and deter children from crime actually make them MORE LIKELY TO OFFEND!
Schools need to not engage in these programmes.
Take kids to a local university or employer to inspire them instead!
Just to be really clear, people are attempting suicide, arrested, then held in prison because there aren’t mental health beds available. Prison staff are then responsible for managing the risk and providing support. Fixing the capacity gap in our mental health provision is urgent
Men and women so desperately mentally unwell they've maimed themselves & exposed their own intestines. Today's report by the inspector of prisons
@charlie_taylor6
on mental ill health in jail is totally shocking, especially as some inmates have not been convicted of any crime...
📢📢BIG NEWS KLAXON! I can't tell you how PROUD we are at
@unlockedgrads
to be up at
#22
in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employer list, above many very well known household names!
Not that long ago I was told a prison officer grad scheme would likely NEVER make it into this list!
🏆Unlocked Graduates reach Number 22 in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2023-24! 🏆
📈 Unlocked Graduates are the highest risers in this year’s Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list - up from number 67 to 22!
Full Times Top 100 listing here ➡️
Not a huge fan of anecdote when others use it, but feel compelled in response to this.
Being PXed (x2) out of mainstream schooling was one of the best things to happen to me because mainstream is not suitable for all.
It is what happens afterwards that really needs fixing.
Excellent event at St James’s Palace last night to launch the
@StJPiccadilly
Changemakers programme (and talk
@unlockedgrads
and prison reform!)
Particular honour to meet the Duke of Edinburgh, and to be part of this incredible panel of leaders chaired by Sir Trevor McDonald!
And what is left unsaid. Lewis has mental health issues as do many, many prisoners. When someone who is medically suffering with depression is locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day unable to control their negative thoughts, that can’t be a good thing
#thechoir
Seeing a few people in my timeline who aren’t sure how
#BlackLivesMatter
and the
#GeorgeFloyd
issue has any relevance in the UK - a good starting point to learn more is to read
@DavidLammy
’s review of BAME representation in the criminal justice system
Really pleased to be on
@BBCBreakfast
this morning talking about
@unlockedgrads
with some of the incredible people from our newest cohort
(You can watch here at 2hrs 45 mins in case you missed it!
)
Excited to celebrate 10 years of
@EducEndowFoundn
and hear from the absolute hero that is
@BeckyFrancis7
. EEF is an absolute game changer of an organisation. Few things are more important than a focus on building a rigorously evidence-based approach to education.
So I know some people have got into amazing university courses today and achieved other incredible things, but my 3 year old has learned to ride his bike and I’m pretty overwhelmed with excitement 😃
LOVE this! Alternative provision done well can be a game changer for children mainstream schooling doesn’t work for. This was totally my experience too!
Cambridge student: I’m proof that pupil referral isn’t a pathway to prison
For many frontline prison staff, being a prison officer is a vocation as well as a profession. This is such a great example of how much many prison staff care
It’s the graduation of
@unlockedgrads
2019 cohort - they did the toughest graduate scheme at the toughest time possible. There isn’t enough hyperbole to describe how unbelievably incredible the people in this room are.
This from a prisoner today:
“Hearing the voice on the landing in the morning, you immediately know who it is, and if it’s certain prison officers then you know it’s going to be a better day”
Today I’ve been wondering what if prison held a more mixed demographic?
Specifically what if the children of lots of our MPs and senior civil servants were rotating in and out of them?
What would be different about them?
LOVING hearing an
@unlockedgrads
participant talk about reading To Kill a Mockingbird at the same time as a prisoner on her landing (who’d never heard of the book before) and agreeing the chapters they’d read each week so they could talk about plot and characters together
This is just such a powerful example of the difference prison officers can make, and I am so proud this one joined the prison service because of
@unlockedgrads
.
A really incredible write up in the
@Telegraph
on this - please do have a read!
Want to be
@unlockedgrads
Head of Curriculum and oversee the design of an entire curriculum which supports transformative leadership on the frontline of prisons?
AMAZING JOB OPPORTUNITY for all you curriculum nerds out there 💥🎓🥳
“As an ex-teacher, he brought his passion for education onto the wings.”
Teacher then
@unlockedgrads
and using his skills to support prisoners into education (especially the most reluctant ones). Now head of education for a whole prison!
Just a reminder that our prisons are not built for heat waves, and over the coming days many thousands of prison officers will be on boiling hot landings in their full uniform trying to provide decency and care for prisoners, who themselves will be living in very hot cells.
This blog I wrote for
@TeachFirst
covers
- why people who care about school should care about prison (& how to help)
- why Alternative Provision can be the best option
- how
@UnlockedGrads
is helping make prisons better
- why I love being a TF Ambassador
Whilst many of us are winding down for a bit of time off, I want to thank all those who are working at Christmas to protect and care for others, particularly all the prison officers who will be working through Christmas, including lots of
@unlockedgrads
I work in prisons. I used to work in schools serving disadvantaged communities. You know who we tend to lock up in our prisons? More than HALF are men who can’t read and write. Lots know each other “from the out”. How? They grew up in the same area. They WENT TO SCHOOL together!
A long term failing school in the centre of a community can create and perpetuate devastating intergenerational social issues.
I remember someone describing it as a terrible cancer. Turn around fatigue is real too.
This solution of new schools has to be tried.
So excited that
@unlockedgrads
is now at NUMBER 36 in the 2020-21 Times Top 100 Graduate Employers! Application numbers are rocketing and we expect this year to be the most competitive yet.
If you know someone amazing who wants to have an impact, tell them to apply!
With record applications again this year, the Unlocked programme is giving more grads the opportunity for personal development and rewarding careers in prisons tackling society's biggest challenges.
Latest news:
@MoJGovUK
@hmpps
@lucyfrazermp
@TomRees_77
Video of them in white parkas and snow boots, singing and dancing in the snow with bells accompanying, released in late November = Christmas song
@SarahHatstand
This was a few weeks ago when we had a staff social with awards in the evening. I needed to do a short speech and my baby daughter made it clear she needed to be with me...
#ThisIsWhatACEOLooksLike
Wanted to explain in simple terms what is happening in prisons this week. Prisons are full up. More policing plus recall plus long waits for court plus longer sentences for the same crimes means we have more people being held inside prison. And now there's no space left. 🧵
Delighted to deliver the keynote speech at the PO21 conference in Lisbon.
@unlockedgrads
is funded and supported by
@hmpps
to innovate in prison officer recruitment and training, and it’s a privilege to share the solutions we’ve found with such an impressive group of experts!
We are so excited that Unlocked is now an independent charity. We could not have done it without the amazing team
@Catch22
who supported us through our incubation.
This is an incredible solution to a really worrying problem: a violence reduction service set up by trauma surgeon
@martinpgriff
in a hospital ward for kids sees readmissions drop from 30% to 4%.
Well worth a read.
If you want to understand the impact one person can have training public servants,
@reuben_moore
is a great case study. One person who has inspired and developed so many
@teachfirst
teachers over the years -must be hundreds of thousands of children positively affected by his work
This could have been written so many
@TeachFirst
folks.
@reuben_moore
has been a wonderfully supportive, warm and wise presence in the lives of so many of us for years and years. Thank you.
It’s my son’s first day of school tomorrow and I’m not sure if it’s normal to feel this strongly, but I really couldn’t be more proud or excited or nervous for him!
Excellent focus on prison reform at Starmer’s first news conference. The appointment of James Timpson shows this is being taken very seriously. Excited to see what this means for the prison workforce which deserves a lot more attention and care.
Whoop whoop!
@unlockedgrads
have WON the Institute for Student Employers’ award for Best Graduate Development Programme 2023!
It’s been an incredible year for the Unlocked team in recruitment, and performance of participants on the programme.
Delighted for this recognition!
Couldn’t be more excited about the
@unlockedgrads
annual lecture!
In 1980s Norway’s recidivism rate was 60-70%. Today it is around 20%!
Come and listen to Are Høidal explain what enabled this remarkable public sector reform, and the workforce revolution that underpinned it.
In the 1980s, Norwegian prisons had high reoffending rates. Today, they're at just 20%. Come hear about that journey, the workforce reforms and what made it a success from Are Høidal, former governor at Halden prison, at Unlocked Graduates' inaugural Annual Lecture.
Being in prison is particularly tough at the moment, but during a visit to
@HMPWScrubs
today I heard from
@unlockedgrads
about the amazing work
@fredsirieix1
is doing to offer support and opportunities to prisoners: qualifications and even jobs post release.
Really brilliant!
Brilliant to be at
@ChildrensComm
launch of The Big Ambition. So powerful hearing
@FloellaBenjamin
speak about children needing a strong political voice.
“Just because children don’t vote it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to them”.
This is what the big ambition is all about!
“She did not believe accountancy "was going to keep getting me out of bed in the morning".
"In prison, every day, I feel like I'm genuinely helping someone."”
If you know anyone looking for a change of career,
@unlockedgrads
are open for applications!
Just did the first nursery drop off. Had a bit of anxiety about it last night, but seeing the other children arrive and then how happy and nervous he was to see his friends reassured us it was the right decision for us at this time.
So delighted to speak to the new cohort of
@unlockedgrads
this morning!
•142 graduates have started their initial training to become prison officers and lead change on the frontline - biggest cohort yet!
•The most competitive year ever with over 40 applicants for each place
So delighted to launch the new
@unlockedgrads
strategy at the House of Lords today!
(Also just realised this is a picture of me, mid speech, having a great time laughing at my own jokes…)
“Back in 2017 our first cohort started on Unlocked. Five years later we have a solid proof of concept, and today I am so excited to be sharing our new strategy with all of you.” - Unlocked CEO and Founder,
@NPorter83
Having spent years being dismissive about nurseries doing uni style graduation ceremonies, today my 4 year old daughter put on a tiny mortar board and gown to celebrate the incredible work she’s done at nursery this year, and my gosh I take ALL of it back!
This is what Norwegian prison officer training looks like. Two years full time training to make sure that they “educate prison officers to a profession, not a role”.
The employees at this training college do research from the angle of professionalism. THIS IS SO EXCITING!
Delighted to do a “fireside chat” for an international group of
@TeachForAll
legends today with
@LoicMnzs
.
Loic and I did our
@TeachFirst
training together 17 years ago!!
(Expecting lots of comments here on how this can’t be true because we look so youthful etc)
Loved speaking to
@unlockedgrads
partner prison governors this morning at Leeds Trinity. It was an overview of our training principles and introduction to the 2021 cohort
Such an important piece of work by
@Ofstednews
and
@HMIPrisonsnews
looking reading in prison.
“Prisons do not give due priority to improving prisoners’ reading… the prisoners with the greatest need generally received the least support”
This picture just popped up to remind me that the very first day at
@unlockedgrads
very first Summer Institute was 3 years ago today! Exciting that the fourth cohort is starting in a few days time
#UGSI2020