Prevent Duty Guidance for Schools

The Prevent Duty Guidance (under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 ) was released by the Government in March 2015 which places a duty on schools, and other agencies, to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.  This legal duty came into force on 1st July.  The duty placed on schools covers 4 areas:

  • Risk Assessment
  • Working in Partnership
  • Staff Training
  • IT Policies

The training element of the Prevent Duty will make this training statutory for all staff in a similar way to Safeguarding training.  There will be a generic, home office approved, training package called “Workshop to Raise Awareness around Prevent” (WRAP) . This is suitable for all agencies, can be run in house (i.e. doesn’t require an outside presenter) and lasts around 60-90 minutes.  It is expected that the Home Office will provide further guidance and clarity regarding this training at a later date.

The Prevent Duty Guidance can be accessed here: Prevent Duty Guidance and a letter to the Director of Children’s Services can be found here: Safeguarding pupils from extremism and radicalisation.

At the beginning of July 2015, the Department for Education released further guidance to help clarify the role of schools under the new “Prevent Duty”.  The DfE, Prevent Duty departmental advice and DfE, Social Media guidance has been issued to help schools keep children safe from the risk of radicalisation and extremism.  This departmental advice complements the statutory guidance and intends to help schools and childcare providers by:

  • clarifying what the prevent duty means for schools and childcare providers
  • outlining what they can do to help protect children from the risk of radicalisation
  • making clear what schools and childcare providers should do to demonstrate compliance with the duty
  • informing them about other sources of information, advice and support

All Halton schools should ensure that they have read these two new documents in conjunction with the “Prevent Duty”.

In addition to this, you can also access the free NCALT Channel/Prevent General Awareness E-Learning Module by clicking on the link below:

This online piece of training includes information on how Channel links to the government’s counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) through the Prevent strategy.  It also provides guidance on how to identify people who may be vulnerable to radicalisation and how to refer them into the Channel programme.  It does not replace the WRAP training that schools will be required to ensure staff have received, but it is a good starting point in the interim period for key staff.  There is an expectation from the Board that all key school Safeguarding staff will have completed this online training.

Update September 2015

The Department for Education has published a new policy paper outlining how it is tackling extremism through the education and children’s services sectors. Examples of the work covered includes the Prevent duty, guidance for schools and childcare providers and inspections.  You can find the link here:

Within this paper, there is also a link to some additional resources that the DfE has produced that are available to schools via the TES website.  You will need to be registered with the website in order to download them, but please find the link here:

Update September 2016

All School safeguarding leads should have received WRAP Level 3 facilitator training in order to ensure their staff and governing body are fully trained in WRAP Level 3 and therefore compliant with their Prevent Duty. For further information regarding WRAP training, contact the SCIE Officer on [email protected]