What is PREVENT?
PREVENT is about safeguarding children, young people or adults who may be influenced into supporting terrorism or becoming involved in terrorism.
This grooming process could happen face-to-face or on-line. Prevent deals with all kinds of terrorist threats to the UK, including the threats from organisations such as far right extremist groups, ISIS, Daesh or Al Qa’ida associated groups, animal rights violent activity or any cause that encourages violence to achieve political change. PREVENT is part of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy.
Revised Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales
Salford Prevent team have given us permission to use the following resource which is child and family-friendly and outlines the process after a referral to Prevent has been made and accepted. This can be used with pupils to outline what happens next, especially Channel.
channel-journey.pdf
What to do if you are worried about a child:
Share your concerns with your organisation’s Prevent or safeguarding lead.
Contact the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and ask to speak to the Duty Officer:
More information about reporting a concern can be found here
You can also make a referral to Prevent here
If you see or hear anything that could be terrorist related you can report it to the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321
If a child is in immediate danger, call 999
If a child is not in immediate danger but you believe a crime may have been committed, call the Police on 101
The Police Prevent team provide advice and can be contacted on 101.
What is Channel?
Channel is a confidential, voluntary, multi-agency safeguarding programme that provides early intervention to protect vulnerable children and adults who might be susceptible to being radicalised. If left unsupported, their vulnerabilities mean they could be at risk of becoming involved in terrorist-related activity. Channel is run in every local authority in England and Wales.
More information about The PREVENT Duty and Channel can be found here
Prevent Handbook for Education
A new Prevent Handbook has been developed to support headteachers in understanding and effectively implementing the government's Prevent Duty within their schools and colleges. The handbook was developed by the Safeguarding Advisor for Education, Stacey Brackenridge and a small working group of headteachers, deputy headteachers, trust safeguarding leads and teachers to ensure that it included everything that professionals needed to protect children from being drawn into terrorism or supporting terrorism.
This practical resource is designed not only to guide senior leaders but also to be shared with staff as part of ongoing efforts to build a positive and effective safeguarding culture. The handbook provides clear guidance, useful tools, good practice and case studies to help identify and respond to potential risks of extremism and radicalisation. By embedding its use into whole-school safeguarding practices, we can strengthen our collective efforts to protect children and young people from being drawn into harmful ideologies, ensuring their safety and well-being remain at the heart of everything we do.
Prevent Handbook final August 2025.pdf
Flowchart for referral.pdf
Notice check and share poster for staff.pdf
