| Everything you need to know about Prevent in One Newsletter |
| The Prevent agenda experienced a major refresh last year, and I’ve seen an increase in settings asking me for briefing sessions or simply advice on specific matters relating to radicalisation. If you feel that your knowledge of Prevent may need updating, I hope you find this newsletter helpful. I strongly suggest putting aside a bit of time to check out the links, there is a lot to learn. In 2015 schools (and other ‘specified authorities’ including local authorities, health services, universities, and the criminal justice service) were informed that a key part of their safeguarding responsibilities would consist of their statutory obligations to ‘to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’- the Prevent Duty. Statutory guidance relating to Prevent has undergone many revisions since then, but the most up to date update January 2024 document can be found here: Prevent duty guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The guidance covers general information on Prevent, the aims, key definitions, and, importantly, detailed sector specific guidance to ensure compliance. Broadly, schools are now required to prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism by carrying out a variety of different actions, including: appointing a designated lead in a senior management role who is responsible for the delivery of Prevent ensuring susceptibility to radicalisation is incorporated into safeguarding induction and training, policies and risk assessments reducing permissive environments by ensuring online safety and that external speakers are suitable and appropriately supervised ensuring staff can identify concerning behaviour changes that may indicate pupils are susceptible to radicalisation sharing information, making referrals and cooperating with local Channel panels (the multiagency safeguarding service for Prevent)building resilience through the curriculum by actively promoting fundamental British values and providing a safe environment to debate controversial issues. Back in 2015, schools struggled with what exactly was meant by ‘fundamental British values’ and how to promote them. Guidance was poor and the training offered by the government on Prevent, ‘Workshops Raising Awareness of Prevent’ (WRAP), failed to explain fully what the new responsibilities really entailed. Various online training and resource providers popped up, offering educational materials that celebrated traditional British culture, like roast beef and red telephone boxes. I was told that even Ofsted inspectors were criticising schools whose curriculum was not extolling the virtues of the Royal Family as part of the Prevent agenda. In the news, we also saw how some schools were getting referrals wrong in Prevent – the statistics showed that only a tiny number of referrals from schools actually made the thresholds their local Channel service, indicating that schools didn’t fully understand the importance of spotting the levels of engagement, intent and capability to that could generate a Channel intervention. Counter to guidance, radicalisation was sometimes seen as somehow separate to other forms of abuse, and it was common to see standalone policies for Prevent that weren’t integrated into other safeguarding procedures. The poor quality of information on Prevent, including the poor quality of the statutory training, combined with the grave importance of the topic, became concerning. Presently, schools and other settings have a much stronger grasp of the key principles of the Prevent agenda. For the most part, schools do understand their role in building resilience in children and communities against adopting extremist ideologies by promoting our fundamental values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. They also know how to address them appropriately in the curriculum by encouraging debate, teaching our democratic processes and laws, supporting freedom of expression, and ensuring that all children appreciate a diverse society where we can all co-exist peacefully by sharing multi-cultural resources and celebrating different religious and cultural festivals. Recent statistics also indicate that a much higher proportion of Channel referrals from schools do make thresholds, as schools understand that an intervention can only really be constructed if children are in danger of being influenced by extremist ideology that could lead to acts of violence or terrorism – not simply because they were exhibiting objectionable or questionable behaviour. For more detail on this responsibility, see: Understanding and identifying radicalisation risk in your education setting – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The government has also developed more resources for schools to help fulfil their duty to address radicalisation in the curriculum, including the rather excellent Educate Against Hate website: Educate Against Hate – Prevent Radicalisation & Extremism For more fantastic resources, please spend time exploring the website London Grid for Learning which is constantly updated with new resources on Prevent LGfL Safeguarding – Keeping Children Safe | LGFL For further very useful information and inspiration on the pivotal role of schools in safeguarding learners from radicalisation, please read this collection case studies, it really is one of the most useful documents I have come across on the subject: Case studies – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Nevertheless, I still encounter some professionals who have indicated to me that perhaps Prevent is not as much of a priority as it was in 2015. It’s also very common for me to find that schools and other settings do not actually have a Prevent risk assessment in place, a statutory requirement. Islamic State has been defeated for the most part, and training on Prevent has greatly improved and we all have a much clearer idea of what is expected, so it may not feel so critical in terms of your safeguarding duties. But, for me as a safeguarding professional, downgrading the importance of Prevent is extremely worrying. The threat from Prevent has not gone away, although those threats now seem to be coming from a different extremist ideologies and statistics in a recent report on the work of Channel for 2022 – 23 show that concerns where children are the subject are over represented. The number of Prevent referrals to Channel, mainly from the education sector, continue to rise year on year:Those aged 14 years and under accounted for the second largest proportion (2,119; 31%) of referrals. Nearly half (46%) of referrals that were taken on by Channel were for individuals aged between 11 and 15 years. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/individuals-referred-to-prevent/individuals-referred-to-and-supported-through-the-prevent-programme-april-2022-to-march-2023 Furthermore, the latest data released by the Home Office shows that 2023 saw the highest number of terrorism arrests of young people since records began (11 September 2001). Of the 219 arrests for terrorism related offences last year, 19 percent (42) of these were young people aged 17 and under: Number of young people arrested for terrorism offences hits record high | Counter Terrorism Policing Why are children overrepresented in the Prevent programme and becoming increasingly at risk at becoming involved in terrorism? I think that the Covid epidemic resulted in many children being exposed, unsupervised and for long periods of time, to online material that could be extremist in nature. Repeated lockdowns also inspired a rise in anti vax and other conspiracy theories, some of which led to calls for violent actions. The sharp rise in the numbers of referrals for mixed, unstable and unclear ideologies (a list of different categories including conspiracist, school massacre and Incel ideologies which didn’t even appear in the data in 2015), and the referrals concerning the Extreme Right Wing, have now well overtaken referrals for so-called Islamist concerns in recent years. When it came to make thresholds for a Channel intervention, there were more adopted cases for individuals referred for concerns related to Extreme Right-Wing radicalisation (296; 46%) compared to individuals with concerns related to Islamist radicalisation (115;18%), a trend which has persisted for the last five years. Following a number of horrific incidents, including the Manchester Arena bombings and fatal stabbings in London, Prevent faced a number criticisms that it had not been achieving its core aim to prevent acts of terrorism. William Shawcross CVO was commissioned to carry out an independent review of Prevent and reported his findings in February 2023. The final report proved controversial for many. Shawcross thought that Prevent was failing and pointed out that many perpetrators of acts of terrorism had actually been referred to Channel and were receiving an intervention at the time they committed their offences. He thought the reason why mistakes were made was because people were not focussing on the main threat of terrorism. He encouraged those involved in the delivery of Prevent to take a more proactive approach. People previously regarded as vulnerable should now be regarded as being ‘susceptible’ to terrorism. Prevent should focus on ‘reducing permissive environments’ where domestic extremists operating below the terrorism threshold could create an environment conducive to terrorism. Pointedly, Shawcross felt that Prevent was not doing enough to counter non-violent Islamist extremism. Shawcross was very critical of Prevent training. He said that the WRAP training provided by the government was not fit for purpose (which was gratifying to read amongst us safeguarding trainers who always thought as much) and needed a complete rethink. He recommended that future training should not be so prescriptive and just rely on online presentations but allow questioning and discussion. He thought trainers should exhibit a real understanding extremist ideologies. He also said that training offered should be proportionate to the risk of terrorism and extremism in local area. In general schools come out of the report rather well, and Shawcross reserved praise for them for their work with Prevent. The report also says that referrers are quite rightly using Prevent as a safeguarding initiative when it comes to children who are indeed vulnerable (elsewhere he says Prevent should not be used to protect the vulnerable but rather protect innocent citizens against the individual susceptible to extremist ideology). ‘I found the duty to be well embedded and broadly well understood within this sector [schools], forming an integrated part of safeguarding practices and training. I was encouraged by the ways in which institutions, particularly after the introduction of the duty, absorbed Prevent within existing safeguarding processes and recognised the need to encompass risk of radicalisation alongside forms of exploitation and abuse.’ Despite the praise for schools, Shawcross recommended that schools should be monitored by Ofsted for their compliance to the Prevent agenda, including the teaching of fundamental British values, which he supports. As a result, Ofsted inspectors will now be assessing compliance with Prevent as part of their report. Apart from this, Shawcross made no recommendations for new legal requirements or additional responsibilities for schools in regard to Prevent. You can read the Shawcross report here: Independent Review of Prevent (publishing.service.gov.uk) Last week the government have published their progress on a series of recommendations made by Shawcross: Prevent programme strengthened a year on from independent review – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) They reported that the vast majority of the review recommendations had been implemented within one year, with the remaining recommendations progressing at pace. These included new guidance in Prevent and Channel, due diligence checks on organisations receiving funding, the appointment of Prevent advisors across the country and a new prevent assessment framework. And, very importantly, a new enhanced training package developed by a range of agencies aiming to ensure that those involved in Prevent are fluent in their understanding the extremist ideological threats facing us right now. You can access the new updated online Prevent training here: Prevent duty training – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Safeguarding leader, but feeling slightly overwhelmed? Check out this short government piece which cuts to the absolute essentials: The Prevent duty: an introduction for those with safeguarding responsibilities – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) And contact me for a bespoke Prevent briefing for your staff team. |