Prevent Duty Training

“Prevent Duty is the duty in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 on specified authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.” Prevent was an initiative that was first introduced in the UK in 2003 and it’s scope was broadened in 2011.  It’s aim is to identify those who could be vulnerable to being radicalised and intervene before they become involved with terrorism or extremism.

Intelligence indicates that further terrorist attacks in our country are ‘highly likely’. Experience tells us that the threat comes not just from foreign nationals, but from terrorists born and bred in Britain. It is therefore vital that our counter-terrorism strategy contains a plan to prevent radicalisation and stop would-be terrorists from committing mass murder

The course examines some of the reasons people become extremists and how they move on to become radicalised and in rare cases, terrorists.  The Three Prevent Objectives are:

• challenging the ideology,
• supporting vulnerable people, and
• working with key sectors.

Prevent is coordinated from and by the Office for Security and Counterterrorism OSCT in the home office and the Home Secretary is the lead minister. Prevent duty is prioritised in the light of the risks we face. The type and scale of the risk varies greatly and can change rapidly. But no area, institution or body is risk free. We look at how the three themes (below) and examine how they are implemented.

• effective leadership,
• working in partnership and
• appropriate capabilities.

Extremism has many forms and promotes different ideologies, but the radicalization journey is often very similar.

We’ll  look closely at extremism, radicalization and terrorism – outlining the radicalization journey and listing the warning signs that might indicate something is going wrong. There’s no single route to terrorism, nor is there a simple profile of those who become involved. For this reason, any attempt to produce a profile can be misleading. However, there are a number of behaviours and indicators that may point to the early stages of the radicalization process and we look at some of the most common key indicators, at various stages and radicalisation.

This Prevent duty training gives best practice advice on what you should do if you’re concerned or if anyone comes to you with concerns and the support that is available.  If you feel your concerns are serious, you local authority Lead Channel Process is designed to support and safeguard individuals vulnerable to all forms of radicalization. It’s a voluntary early intervention scheme, which helps people make positive life choices.

Early intervention is best. However, before any intervention, effort should be mad to fully understand the situation and motivation of the person identified as there’s a wide range of social and health services available. This help will be outlined later in the course.

Channel is an early intervention multi agency process, which is designed to safeguard vulnerable people. It works with people of any age who may be at risk of being exploited by extremist or terrorist ideologies.

It is made up of a panel chaired by someone from local government who works with a range of multi agency partners. They have structures in place to enable them decide as a collective if a support package is needed. This support can come in several forms including health, education, employment or housing

The course concludes with summing up the values which we all aim to live by in the UK and encourage those around us to make part of our everyday life. They are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs, which the course looks at in detail.

Prevent duty training comes under the remit of the Home Office and your can access current legislation under the Revised Prevent Duty Guidance: for England and Wales