Prevent and schools

From 1 July 2015, all schools and colleges in England and Wales will have a statutory duty to give due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.

We are fortunate to have dedicated tools available to support schools with this duty, and to help them tackle radicalisation and extremism.

Note – This statutory duty applies to those authorities specified in Schedule 6 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, and includes:

• Maintained schools
• Non-maintained special schools
• Independent schools (including Academies and Free Schools)
• Alternative provision academies
• Pupil referral units
• Registered childcare providers and nurseries
• Other commissioned partners

What is the Prevent Strategy?

Prevent is part of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy and aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent works at the pre-criminal stage by using early intervention to encourage individuals and communities to challenge extremist and terrorist ideology and behaviour.

The Prevent Strategy makes clear the important role that schools have to play in achieving these aims. It is an extension of the same safeguarding processes which the education sector already employs in order to effectively safeguard children from drugs, gang violence, alcohol abuse, and other forms of harm and crime.

Prevent resources | Book training

The pages on this site provide local schools with helpful resources and information they might need to carry out their new statutory role. These tools may also support them in promoting British Values and in meeting Ofsted’s inspection frameworks, which set out current expectations on schools to have an appropriate response to preventing extremism.