Implementing the Prevent Duty – a new review

How well are you implementing the Prevent Duty for your HE provision? Would new research published by HEFCE help you to assess your progress?

In July 2016, Ofsted published its findings on how well further and education and skills providers are implementing the Prevent Duty. (I highlighted some of the key issues raised by the research in my equality news update, which if you missed, you can jump back to here). Now HEFCE has published findings from its research on how well the HE sector is implementing the Prevent Duty.

The review found that the majority of HE providers have responded positively and robustly to the new requirements. For example, most providers had:

• identified the risks pertinent to their own context and developed appropriate, tailored responses
• strong policies in place for assessing and managing the risks around any speaker or events, balancing responsibilities around freedom of speech and the requirements of the duty
• clear evidence of engagement by senior leaders and governors in implementing the duty
• partnerships in place with other Prevent-related agencies – although these varied depending on the size and context of the provider.
• risk assessments and action plans in place that assessed the risks identified
• trained staff to carry out Prevent-related functions and understand how to recognise and respond to concerns about vulnerable individuals
• clear processes for sharing and escalating concerns about vulnerable individuals internally, and for sharing these where necessary with external multi-agency partnerships (including referring to Prevent and discussion at a Channel panel where appropriate).
• Information technology (IT) policies - although this was the area where many providers identified that they still had further work to do to meet the requirements of the guidance in full. For example, although most providers had policies and processes in place, around a third still needed to do more work to ensure these responded fully to the duty.
• worked closely with students and student representatives to implement the duty

However, the review also highlighted that not all providers had responded robustly to the Prevent Duty requirements.

Building on this review, HEFCE will now carry out a series of ‘deep dives’ into particular areas of the duty, culminating in publications setting out examples of approaches that have worked for different institutions.

You can download the report here