Creating Future Opportunities Evolution Northwest

This programme is funded by HMPPS CFO. To learn more about the work of HMPPS CFO please visit their website:

Creating Future Opportunities Northwest website

Career Connect’s Achieve team is commissioned to deliver the HMPPS Creating Future Opportunities (CFO) Evolution contract Northwest

Delivery runs from June 2024 – April 2027.

Over the last 20 years, CFO-commissioned programmes have been helping participants through their rehabilitation journey, reducing reoffending as a result. CFO Evolution is not a standalone programme but is designed to complement and support core HMPPS provision. Career Connect delivers the Northwest service alongside partner and key sub-contractor The Growth Company.

The service includes:

Custody delivery: Our Support Workers deliver services in 14 prisons across the Northwest, and through two specialist wing models in HMP Risley and HMP Lancaster Farms.
Community delivery: In six Northwest Activity Hubs and some peripatetic delivery.

An outbuilding at a prison. It has a motivational mural on the side, with the words in different coloured circles: respect, innovation, safety, leadership and empathy.

About the programme

CFO Evolution offers activities and services tailored to each participant, addressing key barriers they face.

It is designed particularly for those who:

are considered disadvantaged, or ill-equipped to effectively engage with the mainstream

would find community re-integration difficult due to barriers they face

need to develop hard and softer life/functional skills required by employers

are not fully supported by existing programmes

CFO Evolution builds on the success of the previous CFO3 and CFO Activity Hub programmes. The learnings taken from these programmes have fed into the delivery model for CFO Evolution, including through-the-gate delivery.

Custody delivery

CFO Evolution custodial delivery includes dedicated CFO Evolution Wings, feeder prisons and outlier prisons.

Delivery is designed to ensure participants maintain motivation and confidence throughout, whilst preparing for community resettlement.

Engagements include peer mentoring training, classroom learning, community contribution and much more. Delivery takes a people-centred approach throughout.

CFO Evolution Wings are welcoming spaces where individuals feel supported, understood, cared for and valued whilst working towards release.

Inside a prison wing. There are stairs to the next level, and pictures of landscapes of sea and fields on the wall.

Community Delivery

Participants in the community can engage with CFO Evolution across the Northwest at a pace which suits their rehabilitation journey.

There are six CFO Evolution Activity Hubs in the Northwest, representing a safe, non-authoritarian space where participants can – and importantly want to – engage in a range of activities and interventions. There is also some peripatetic delivery.

Community delivery in Activity Hubs is designed to help participants build personal resilience, upskill, and strengthen support networks, supporting them to reach a mainstream destination.

Find a CFO Evolution community delivery location

CFO Evolution Activity Hub delivery may include (but is not limited to):

Addressing wider barriers to accessing mainstream opportunities (addictions, literacy/numeracy levels, motivation and confidence etc.)

Overcoming practical obstacles (obtaining ID, registration with GP/dentist, support to retain or secure a tenancy)

Access to partner delivery sites, including funded transport/travel to pop-up Activity Hubs or community delivery sites

Practical courses (vocational, basic skills, financial literacy etc.)

Improving likelihood of securing employment (disclosure, CV creation, interview techniques, job applications, communication skills etc.)

1-2-1 support and group activities to allow participants to tackle barriers at their own pace and in a comfortable manner

Additional skills (healthy living, money management, safeguarding, wellbeing etc.)

Working through recorded sessions or workbooks with a Support Worker

Collaborative appointments with professionals in the community.

Meet our CFO Evolution team

Natalie helps women in custody to look forward with hope

“It’s helping women believe that they can achieve things, and that the success stories are out there – I’ve seen them…there is opportunity there, there is another way, you don’t have to continue on the road that you’re going down.”