Welcome to the new Unlock website

We’ve spent the last few months working hard behind the scenes to build our new website – we hope you like it! Our main goal was to make our information and advice for people with criminal records much easier to find and navigate. That way the people we exist to help can find what they need straight away. We also wanted to update the look and feel of the site, with accessibility as the top priority. We hope you’ll find it really easy to find what you’re looking for – but if you’re a long-time user of our old site there are a few things you will notice.  

Everything in one place 

Previously we had six websites: 

• Unlock.org.uk 
• theInformationHub 
• theForum 
• theRecord 
• Recruit! 
• theCalculator 

We have reduced the number of websites, to make it easier for you to find everything you might need. So on this new site, we’ve brought all the content from theInformationHub and theRecord into Unlock.org.uk.  

Information and Advice 

The Information and Advice section is where you’ll find all of our advice articles, guides and tools for people with criminal records. It’s everything that you previously would have found on theInformationHub, to help you understand your criminal record. And remember that our helpline is always here for you if you need more support.  

Community 

You may have been familiar with theRecord, previously referred to as our online magazine. We decided that we didn’t want to keep the real life stories and experiences of people with criminal records separate from the rest of our work; we wanted to incorporate them into our main website and make sure they’re easy to find. You’ll find all the personal stories and views that previously lived on theRecord in our new Community section. We’re always looking for contributions, so please do share your story with us if you’d like to.  

We know that for many of our users, the opportunity to connect to others who share their experiences is invaluable – our forum is still live in its usual home.  

Changing the system 

We know that on our old website, some users found it difficult to find information about the work we do to create change at a higher level. In the new Changing the System section, you’ll find all our policy work broken down by our key priorities, the issues we’re working on, as well as all our publications and evidence. 

Redeveloping our calculator 

As well as redeveloping our website, we’ve been working on a new and updated version of the disclosure calculator – our online tool which helps you find out if a conviction needs to be disclosed. The redeveloped version will be simpler to use, visually updated and will be incorporated into this website. Once the new version is finalised, we’ll make sure to let you know! In the meantime, all links from this website still point to the existing calculator. 

Tell us what you think 

We’re proud of our new website, and we’ve been carrying out user testing along the way to make sure it works for you. However, like all websites and digital projects the site will be constantly evolving, so please tell us what you think and let us know if there’s anything that could work better. At the bottom of each page, you’ll find two buttons which you can click to let us know if it was easy to find what you were looking for. This will help us to keep improving as we go. 

Thank you 

Redeveloping our websites has been a significant piece of work. Our warmest thanks go to Clear Honest Design, who have worked with us to design and build this website. We’re also incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken part in our surveys, user testing and submitted feedback on the new site.