Prevent / radicalisation awareness

Learning outcomes

• Explain the Prevent duty and where it sits within safeguarding
• Identify vulnerability factors and behavioural indicators
• Make a Prevent referral and understand the Channel process
• Build resilience through open conversation

Module 1 of 3

The duty

Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a duty on specified authorities, including care providers, to have due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism. Prevent is early intervention and support, not law enforcement.

It covers all forms of extremism, including Islamist, extreme right-wing, incel-related and single-issue extremism. Referrals are treated exactly like any other safeguarding concern.

Module 2 of 3

Vulnerability and indicators

Looked-after children are disproportionately vulnerable because radicalisers offer precisely what these children are missing: identity, belonging, purpose, status and a clear explanation for their grievances.

Indicators include sudden adoption of an us-and-them worldview, justifying violence, withdrawal from friends and family, new secretive online contacts, possession of extremist material, and hostility to those outside the new group. Any one alone is rarely conclusive — look at the pattern and the trajectory.

Module 3 of 3

Referral and Channel

Raise concerns with the Designated Safeguarding Lead, who makes the Prevent referral. It is assessed by a police Prevent team and, where appropriate, passed to Channel — a voluntary, multi-agency support panel offering mentoring, education and diversionary work.

Channel participation requires consent and is not a criminal record. The most protective factor of all remains a trusted adult who will discuss difficult subjects openly rather than shutting them down.