PREVENT
What is Prevent?
Prevent is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
The Prevent strategy:
- Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views;
- Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support; and
- Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with.
Prevent covers all forms of terrorism and extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism.
The Home Office works with local authorities, a wide range of government departments, and community organisations to deliver the Prevent strategy. The police also play a significant role in Prevent, in much the same way as they do when taking a preventative approach to other crimes.
Prevent uses a range of measures to challenge extremism including:
- Supporting people who are at risk of being drawn into terrorist or extremist activity through the Channel process, see the What is Channel section to find out more about this
- Working with and supporting community groups and social enterprise projects who provide services and support to vulnerable people
- Working with faith groups and institutions to assist them in providing support and guidance to people who may be vulnerable; and
- Supporting local schools, local industry and partner agencies through engagement, advice and training.
Prevent is measured locally and nationally to make sure the Prevent programme provides value for money.
Our Schools approach to PREVENT
Here is the extract from our Safeguarding Policy regarding Radicalisation and Extremism
The school values freedom of speech and the expression of beliefs/ideology as fundamental rights underpinning our society’s values. Both pupils and teachers have the right to speak freely and voice their opinions. However, free speech is not an unqualified privilege; it is subject to laws and policies governing equality, human rights, community safety and community cohesion.
The school seeks to protect children and young people against the messages of all violent extremism and are expected to assess the risk of children being drawn into terrorism, including support for extremist ideas that are part of terrorist ideology.
Staff will be made aware at safeguarding training of the characteristics within children and families that may indicate radicalisation or warning indicators of those who may bevulnerable to radicalisation.
Staff will treat any radicalisation/extremism concerns in the same manner as safeguarding concerns and will follow the schools child protection and safeguarding procedures as outlined in our Safeguarding Policy Section 7.2
School's PREVENT Self Review
Prevent & Safeguarding Self-Assessment 2017-18
Introduction
Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. Schools have a duty of care to their pupils and staff which includes safeguarding them from the risk of being drawn into terrorism - this includes not just violent extremism but also non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit. Schools should be safe spaces in which children and young people can understand and discuss sensitive topics, including terrorism and the extremist ideas that are part of the terrorist ideology and learn how to challenge these ideas.
School staff are particularly important as they are in a position to identify concerns early and provide help for children, to prevent concerns from escalating. Schools and colleges and their staff form part of the wider safeguarding system for children. This system is described in statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (March 2013) and Keeping Children Safe in Education (September 2016). Schools and colleges should work with social care, the police, health services and other services to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. Radicalisation is listed as a specific safeguarding issue within this statutory guidance and is addressed within the Government Prevent Strategy. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a duty on Schools to ‘have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.
The Prevent Strategy has three main objectives:
- Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism & the threat we face from those who promote it;
- Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support;
- Work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation which we need to address.
This self-assessment tool has been developed to aid compliance with the Prevent Duty as a health check for the Senior Leadership Team within a school to assess if Prevent has been adopted into their institution’s mainstream processes. This will identify if their institution requires any advice and support from their local Prevent Team or partner agencies to reduce their vulnerability.
Please see below the full document