Prevent Watch, in collaboration with Amnesty UK and Liberty, have put together a valuable resource for educators on the Prevent Duty entitled ‘Safeguarding not Securitisation’.
The 28-page booklet was put together after feedback from educators who wanted to know what their rights were in relation to Prevent, and who had become aware of the dangers of relying on ‘gut instinct’ in referrals, specifically when it comes to students.
The current government and school guidance on Prevent do not take these harms into account, nor do they provide guidance on how to navigate Prevent while protecting students’ and teachers’ rights.
This has left educators in the difficult situation of having to navigate Prevent as a statutory duty, and default to the Prevent Duty as a safeguarding protocol, while being increasingly aware that it violates many of the core principles of safeguarding and can infringe on several key rights.
The booklet debunks several prevailing myths in relation to Prevent in education, and it explores several key rights that should be considered prior to resorting to Prevent. The booklet features expert opinion from Prevent Watch and some of our cases.
The resource allows educators to understand the harms of Prevent and reconsider it from a right-based perspective, so they can decouple it from their safeguarding responses, in favour of more supportive and productive measures.
Related…
The People’s Review of Prevent (Report, 2022)
