Prevent Duty

"The aim of Prevent is to: tackle the causes of radicalisation and respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism, safeguard and support those most at risk of radicalisation through early intervention, enable those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate." (Home Office:2022)

At Chambersbury school we are fully committed to keeping children safe. Preventing radicalisation is one of the ways we safeguard children. Radicalisation is the process through which children and vulnerable people are drawn into extremist ideologies of all kinds. This can lead to them becoming involved in terrorist activity.

All schools have a Prevent duty under the Counter Terrorism and Security Act (2015). It is our legal responsibility to prevent children in our school from being drawn into terrorism. Prevent is part of the UK government’s wider strategy for tackling terrorism.

There are four strands to our Prevent duty:

• Risk Assessment – this is carried out in line with our safeguarding practice. If we identify a risk of radicalisation we can make a referral for support from the Channel programme
• Working in partnership with other agencies – this includes social care and the police
• Staff training – all staff are trained in their Prevent duties as well as safeguarding responsibilities and their roles in our Child Protection Policy and Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022)
• IT policies – these are regularly updated and IT safety is taught to children regularly. There are safe internet use expectations for all staff, children and parents. Our technical support team at Beebug help keep our systems as safe as possible.

Our curriculum provides lots of opportunities for children to learn how to stay safe and protect themselves. In PSHE we use protective behaviours and build self-confidence and resilience. We teach about online risks (content, contact, conduct and commerce) in computing and PSHE. Assemblies are planned to teach key aspects of citizenship and British Values.

Our ethos is to work together to keep children safe. This is supported by our Behaviour Policy.

Our Safeguarding lead (covering Prevent) is Mrs Chapman-Cotter. If you have any concerns about the risk of radicalisation, please contact her.