Prevent Radicalisation for Practitioners

Prevent

Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy and aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The three main objectives of Prevent are 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, identifying them and offering support
enable those who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate

Who is Prevent for?

Prevent works in a similar way to other safeguarding processes designed to protect individuals whereby the level of intervention increases with the level of risk.

Under the Prevent Duty, all public sector agencies have a responsibility to ensure their staff, service providers and volunteers have a good understanding of the risk, are trained to recognise radicalisation and associated behaviours and how to report concerns.

Prevent initiatives tackle both the causes and risk factors that can lead someone to become radicalised.

It directly supports those who are at risk through early intervention and addresses all forms of terrorism and extremism.

What do we mean by Radicalisation and Extremism?

Radicalisation is the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and in some cases then participates in terrorist activity.

Extremism is defined as, vocal or active opposition to British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. It also includes calls for the death of members of the armed forces here or abroad.

There is no one indicator of when a person might move to adopt violence in support of extremist ideas. However, a number of factors may lead to a person being vulnerable to radicalisation or other forms of risk. Statistically, males are more likely to be drawn into radicalisation than females and the average age of referrals to Channel is 15.

The process is different for each individual and can take place over an extended period or a short time frame. Research suggests that there is a correlation between vulnerability to radicalisation and belief in conspiracy theories.

NOTICE - CHECK - SHARE

If you notice a change in an individual that concerns you, in that they may be vulnerable to radicalisation, follow your organisation’s policy/ Prevent & Channel referral process. Check your concern with a manager or designated safeguarding lead and contact the Prevent team for advice. Share the concern with the police by completing the National Prevent Referral Form.

What Happens with the referral?

Referrals are screened for suitability through a preliminary assessment by the police. If suitable for multi-agency consideration, it is passed to the local authority Channel Panel.

What is Channel?

Channel is a voluntary, multi-agency process designed to safeguard vulnerable people from being drawn into violent extremism or terrorist behaviour. Channel is chaired by the local authority and works with multi-agency partners to collectively assess the risk to an individual, decide whether an intervention is necessary and offer an appropriate support package for each referral.

The Bradford Prevent Team

We work with a wide range of agencies to co-ordinate Prevent across the Bradford District, which includes Keighley.

We offer training and support in all aspects of the Prevent Duty, this includes;