Prevent

What is Prevent?

The purpose of Prevent is to safeguard people who are at risk of radicalisation and to stop them from being exploited by people who would want them to support terrorism. It is also about building resilience in communities through a variety of projects and civil society organisations.

The Prevent programme uses early intervention to protect individuals and communities from the harms of terrorism. Prevent works in a similar way to programmes designed to safeguard people from other harms such as gangs, drug abuse, and physical and sexual abuse, by tackling the underlying causes of radicalisation. Intervention support for vulnerable individuals is both confidential and voluntary. Prevent is delivered through a wide network of partners within communities, civil society organisations and public-sector institutions.

Prevent work also extends to supporting the rehabilitation and disengagement of those already involved in terrorism through the Desistance and Disengagement Programme. This programme is a new element of Prevent that provides a range of intensive tailored interventions and practical support, designed to tackle the drivers of radicalisation. Support could include mentoring, psychological support, theological and ideological advice.

Prevent is:

An extension of existing multi-agency safeguarding principles
Working with communities and local civil society to build resilience to terrorist narratives
Promoting debate in schools and universities
Tackling terrorism in all its forms

Prevent is not:

A spying mechanism
Focussed on any particular religion or ethnicity
Stifling free speech in higher education

Extremist groups use the internet and social media to spread their ideology and recruit vulnerable young people. They know young people are using the internet much more, quite often by themselves, and so utilise these opportunities to exploit and recruit. There is a chance that your child may meet people online, or visit websites that could lead them to adopting what are considered extreme views and become radicalised. Whether you’d like to protect your child from being radicalised or you are concerned that they may be at risk, navigate our guidance below to get expert tips on practical ways you can support them and where you can go for further support.

Key terms

Extremism – Vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values such as democracy, the rule of law and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.

Terrorism – A violent action against people or property, designed to create fear and advance a political, religious or ideological cause.

Radicalisation – The process by which a person comes to support extremism and terrorism.

Walsall context:

The Prevent Coordinator for Walsall Borough is Niall Markham. His role is to provide support to all partner agencies across all key stages, delivering Prevent activity to increase people’s resilience to terrorism. Niall also takes responsibility to lead on engagement with all statutory bodies.

One of the main purposes of the role is to identify vulnerabilities and risk, deliver training, capacity build and maintain a network of contacts within the local area to advance Prevent activity.

The main job purpose is as follows:

Responsible for the implementation of the Prevent Duty locally, as directed within the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act.
To coordinate all Prevent activity on behalf of Walsall Local Authority.
To promote Prevent across both statutory and non-statutory partners.
To develop, maintain and drive the delivery of a Prevent Delivery Plan, in collaboration with relevant statutory partners.
To ensure strong governance arrangements are in place to oversee the work at a local level and maintain strong links with the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT).
Ensure all monitoring and compliance requirements are met in full both locally and with OSCT.
To liaise with OSCT and other Prevent personnel on a local, regional and national basis.
To provide a local connection to the local and regional Police CTU.
To deliver WRAP and associated training, as required, and support compliance.

How to make a Prevent referral:

Referrals for over 18: CTU_gateway@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk

What is Channel Panel?

If the referral progresses and it is assessed that there is a genuine risk of radicalisation, the case is considered by a multi-agency ‘Channel panel’ of professionals who collectively assess the case and decide on a tailored package of support that can be offered to the person. The Channel panel is chaired by the local authority and can include a variety of partners such as the police, children’s services, social services, education professionals and mental health care professionals.

If a Channel intervention is required, a tailored support package will be offered. This could include mentoring, theological guidance, education, and careers assistance to those assessed as being at risk of radicalisation and requiring support.

Channel is voluntary and people who are referred to Prevent must give consent (via a parent or guardian if they are underage) before they can be given support. If a person does not engage with Channel or decides not to continue with the process for any reason, alternative forms of support may be available from the local authority or other providers. Any risks are then carefully managed by the police.

Training:

For training in respect of Prevent, please contact Niall Markham : niall.markham@walsall.gov.uk to arrange ‘face to face Prevent training.

Or access the government website – Prevent duty training: Learn how to support people susceptible to radicalisation | Prevent duty training (support-people-vulnerable-to-radicalisation.service.gov.uk)

Prevent e-Learning Training Service – Onboarding Instructions

Everyone accessing the training must start the training from the start page, or from the course listings page (which is also the sharing link). If someone starts any course beyond this point, they will not go through the onboarding to receive a reference number. This means that the course will not function correctly, and they will be unable to obtain a certificate at the conclusion of the course.

Your unique course reference number is valid for 3 days (72 hours) in which you can access or amend your certificate or complete your training, after which time your reference number will expire and you will need to start again.

The certificate is in PDF format and will open in a new tab when you click on the icon on completion of the course. From there, you need to save or print the certificate for your records. If you do not save the certificate and the reference number expires, you will need to start the course again to obtain a new certificate as we do not store these.