Prevent Duty - What You Need to Know

Promoting the well-being of pupils of course requires schools to protect them from harm and neglect, but also requires schools to consider their physical and mental health and emotional well-being, their opportunities for education, training and recreation, the contribution made by them to society and their social and economic well-being. And, from 1 July 2015, safeguarding has acquired a new face - and with it a new lexicon - in the shape of the Prevent duty.

What is the Prevent duty?

As a result of Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, from 1 July independent schools have had a statutory duty to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. This is referred to as the 'Prevent duty'. Schools must have regard to statutory guidance issued in relation to the Prevent duty. Keeping Children Safe in Education has also been amended over the summer to incorporate the key aspects of the Prevent duty and flag up schools' separate duties under the Channel programme.

What is the Channel programme?

Channel is a programme which focuses on providing support at an early stage to people who are identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. The programme uses a multi-agency approach to protect vulnerable people by identifying individuals at risk, assessing the nature and extent of that risk and developing the most appropriate support plan for the individuals concerned. Schools have a statutory duty to support the programme and must have regard to separate statutory guidance.

What does the Prevent duty mean for independent schools? 

Implementing the Prevent duty will require schools to demonstrate action across all the following areas:

• establish an understanding of the risk profile of radicalisation amongst the school's pupils and staff
• ensure staff understand the risk and build the capabilities to deal with it
• communicate and promote the importance of the Prevent duty, providing appropriate training for staff involved in the implementation of the Prevent duty to ensure effective implementation
• work in partnership and co-operation with local Prevent co-ordinators, the police and local authorities and through existing multi-agency forums
• share information to ensure that a person at risk of radicalisation is given appropriate support whilst taking into account factors such as necessity and proportionality, consent, the power to share and relevant legislation
• ensure that those within the school community suspected or identified as already engaged in illegal terrorist-related activity are referred to the police, and
• maintain appropriate records to show compliance with the school's responsibilities and provide reports when requested

Practical Steps

As the Prevent duty is seen as an aspect of safeguarding, compliance with the statutory guidance is now an inspection issue. The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) has updated its Regulatory Handbook to reflect (and, in some cases, expand on) the guidance. As a minimum, therefore, schools must take action in the following areas:

• Update your child protection policy.
• Update the terms of reference for the Designated Safeguarding Lead and ensure that the  Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is booked to attend Prevent training. The Home Office has developed a core training product called Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP), and schools should enquire with local partners whether there are accredited WRAP-trained facilitators.
• Ensure all staff have read Part 1 of the July 2015 edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education.
• Ensure all staff have completed the online general awareness training module on Channel. ISI's regulatory handbook stresses the need for all staff to have been trained on Prevent and the online module is described by the DfE advice as suitable for these purposes.
• Demonstrate how you have assessed the risk profile of radicalisation in the school. Since January 2015, it has been a requirement for schools to have a risk assessment policy for safeguarding and promoting pupil welfare; schools are advised to update this policy to incorporate your response to the threat of radicalisation.
• Develop clear protocols for ensuring that any visiting speakers are suitable and appropriately supervised; again, your risk assessment policy for promoting pupil welfare might be the appropriate place for this, or your safer recruitment policy.
• Update your IT/social media policies and review filtering protocols to ensure children are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet in school. A government briefing note on the use of social media by terrorist organisations is available.
• Review curriculum and Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) policies to ensure that appropriate emphasis is placed on promoting fundamental British values, since this is regarded as an essential aspect of countering the risk of radicalisation.
• Review your Staff Handbook/Code of Conduct, as the Prevent duty extends equally to staff as pupils.

What other resources are available?

DfE has published non-statutory advice on the Prevent duty which fleshes out the implications for schools and signposts a number of resources available - with the promise of more to come. It has also brought together most of the existing material on a single webpage, which is a useful reference point.

As mentioned above, an online general awareness training module on Channel is available, which the DfE describes as suitable for school staff. It provides an introduction to Prevent and Channel, including how to identify factors that can make people vulnerable to radicalisation and case studies illustrating the types of intervention that may be appropriate.

Finally, of course, we have updated all our template policies to take account of the Prevent duty. Please do get in touch with your usual contact if you have more questions.

For more information, please contact Matthew Burgess in our Independent Schools team on 0117 314 5338.