Finally worked it out after going through everything again. I was checking the information here: Pihole + Unbound not working as it should - #12 by jfb and ran
sudo grep -v '#|^$' -R /etc/unbound/unbound.conf*
This still showed unbound was still not acting as recursive but forwarding. It was because I had renamed resolvconf_resolvers.conf to resolvconf_resolvers_old.conf rather than removing the file completely. Turns out it was still being picked up even with the new name. Removed the file and everything seems to be working correctly now.
Odd specific case but that answer might help someone!