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Hawk Training | Prevent Strategy

1.0  Purpose

The aim of this policy is to outline our approach to supporting the national ‘Prevent’ Agenda linked to the safeguarding of our Learners and staff.

 This policy refers to the Prevent Duty contained within Section 26 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015. The Duty states that specified authorities, including schools, in the exercise of their functions must have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.

Hawk Training is based in London and specialises in work-based learning and vocational qualifications for apprenticeship. We are dedicated to supporting our learners and employers in the achievement of their individual learning needs and helping to improve their career and organisational development opportunities.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION POLICY STATEMENT AND EXPECTATIONS

Hawk Training seeks to create and maintain an inclusive working and learning environment that respects and celebrates difference. This helps create an ethos and culture where all feel valued and empowered, regardless of the many ways that people are different. This may include, for example, age, disability, gender, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation, social-economic background or class, and trans gender.

Hawk Training has zero tolerance to any form of bullying, discrimination or harassment, on any of the above or other grounds

We expect all who work and learn at Hawk Training to abide by this policy statement. This includes staff, learners, employers, trustees and visitors.

2.0  The Prevent Agenda

The government’s counter terrorism strategy is known as CONTEST (2011).

There are four strands to CONTEST of which Prevent is one. The strands of the strategy are as follows:

Pursue: is concerned with the apprehension and arrest of any persons suspected of being engaged in the planning, preparation or commission of a terrorist act.

Protect: aims to strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack and reduce our vulnerability to such attacks. This involves managing the risks to crowded places and the safeguarding of hazardous materials.

Prepare: seeks to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack where that attack cannot be stopped. This includes work to bring a terrorist attack to an end and to increase our resilience, so we can recover from its aftermath

Prevent: is concerned with working with partners to reduce support for terrorism of all kinds, challenging and isolating extremists whose views are shared by terrorist organisations, including challenging and isolating extremists operating on the internet.

The purpose of the Prevent strategy (2011) is to stop people becoming extremists or radicalised or supporting terrorism. Whilst the percentage of people willing to support violent extremism in the UK is small, evidence identifies that terrorist and violent extremist   organisations exploit vulnerabilities to spread their rhetoric and gain support. The UK government has identified factors that may lead to individuals supporting and/or engaging in terrorist related activity. Understanding and targeting these factors is crucial to prevent radicalisation and minimise the risks it poses to the national security.

The Prevent Duty incorporates responsibility to promote British Fundamental Values through our practice, formal and informal teaching and learning. These values are defined as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.

The Duty covers all forms of radicalisation, including risk from extremist faith groups, far right extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism.

Source:

Keeping Children Safe in Education - September 2022

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101454/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2022.pdf

The Prevent Strategy aims to:

• Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat was faced from those who promote it.
• Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support.
• Work with sectors and institutions where there are risks or radicalisation, which we need to address.

Terrorism in the UK context

The Prevent strategy (2011) identified 4 types of terrorism that the UK faces, these being:

• International, the most significant current threat comes from Al Qa’ida its affiliates and likeminded organisations.
• Northern-Ireland related, although the responsibility of the Secretary of State of the Northern Ireland the prevent principles are applicable.
• Extreme right-wing
• Other, these are often small movements in reaction to a single issue, a specific incident or ideology

Tackling extremism in the UK (2013) highlighted many key public institutions where extremists can take advantage and share their ideology with others. The Government also identified through the extremism task force (2014), that it needed to do more to address extremism in locations where it can exert control, these include:

• Schools
• Universities and further education
• Prisons

Locally the Prevent partnership group shares a responsibility to monitor these areas and implement preventative initiatives were necessary.

Local management of Prevent

Nationally, the appointed coordinators ensure that the Prevent strategy is adhered to. The Prevent Duty guidance published alongside the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 sets an expectation that the coordinator will:

• Establish or make use of the existing local multi-agency group to agree risk and co-ordinate prevent activity.
• Use the existing counter-terrorism local profiles to begin to assess the risk of individuals being drawn into terrorism.
• Engage with Prevent coordinators, schools, universities, colleges, local prisons, probation services, health, immigration enforcement and others as part of the risk assessment process.
• Mainstream the prevent duty so that it becomes part of the day-today work of the authority, in particular safeguarding children.
• Any local authority that assesses, through the multi-agency group, that there is a risk will be expected to develop a Prevent action plan.
• Ensure frontline staff have a good understanding of Prevent, are trained to recognise vulnerability to being drawn into terrorism and are aware of available programmes to deal with this issue.

The coordinating authority is responsible for the Prevent Partnership Group which carries the following responsibilities:

• Organise and facilitate a multi-agency Prevent Partnership Group
• Act as local experts for strategy and delivery
• Develop and manage the local Prevent Strategy
• Devise and implement projects
• Work in partnership with other sectors and the community, with outreach where these groups are less engaged

Channel Panel

The Channel process is essentially a safeguarding programme aimed at supporting individuals identified as vulnerable to being drawn into violent extremism or terrorist related activity. As with other safeguarding practices, Channel is reliant on a multi-agency response and multi-disciplinary work to minimise and manage the risk to an individual. Channel is voluntary and so the individual must provide consent. It draws on existing collaboration between local authorities, the police statutory partners and the local community and have three objectives:

• Identify individuals at risk of being drawn into radical extremism
• Assess the nature and extent of the risk
• Develop the most appropriate support for the individuals concerned

The Counter Terrorism and Security Act (2015) provides a statutory framework for a joint local authority/police panel to assess the extent to which identified individuals are vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism and to put in place a support plan. This effectively place Channel on a statutory footing. The Act sets out these panels which are chaired by the responsible local authority.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/channel-guidance

3.0 Hawk Training – current practices which contribute to Prevent

• Our safeguarding policy refers to the Prevent agenda to ensure it is within the protective work we carry out to safeguard our Learners, visitors and members of staff.
• Training sessions on specific and wider Prevent Agenda issues maximise the opportunities for expert input to develop staff awareness.
• Our work to promote Equality and Diversity within Hawk Training, through providing information advice and guidance, teaching, including incorporating British Fundamental Values.       This contributes to good community relations and reduces the risk of radicalisation.

The Prevent Duty Guidance requires all relevant institutions to conduct a regularly reviewed Prevent risk assessment and associated action plan.

Hawk Training will review the action plan on a quarterly basis by the Directors, drawing in commentary and responsibility for actions from other members of staff as appropriate.

Monthly reports/updates to carried out by the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

A summary of the risk assessment and action plan will be reported on annually to the Directors/Senior Management Team.

Activities and events which may pose a risk of radicalisation, including the presence of visiting speakers and the hiring or Hawk premises to external groups, will be assessed using the existing format.

Prevent Referrals

A Prevent referral is a supportive activity which initially involves the identification of an individual or a member of staff at risk of radicalisation.

A referral should be made via a member of the Safeguarding Team, typically, one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads or the Director of Operations.

Linked Policies/procedures:

Dignity at Work Policy

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy

Safeguarding Policy

Disclosure and Barring Service Policy

Serious Incident Policy

IT Policy

External Speakers Procedure