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These are the records of all our Prevent cases that have agreed to be public. Some of them are summaries, while others are more detailed.

Picture of adolescent male under spotlight for article on autistic boy on UK Channel programme CategoriesOur Cases Library Education Case Study Health Case Study

‘None of what he was doing and saying had anything to do with becoming a terrorist’ – mum of autistic teen who passed through Channel programme speaks

At the point of involvement in the Channel programme, since my son had been referred to Prevent, this fundamentally altered how professionals viewed him, and it had real consequences for how they interpreted and responded to risk, vulnerability, and identity – the whole process was punitive and did not do justice to my autistic son.  I wanted to share my son’s story to show how Prevent and Channel processes can fail to meet the needs of neurodivergent children, and how they can misinterpret autistic traits such as hyperfocus, imitation, and social vulnerability as ideological commitment, especially when it comes to adolescence and digitally mediated environments. We engaged with Prevent and Channel in good faith and I hope his story informs more proportionate, neurodiversity-informed practice. I do not dispute the importance of safeguarding or responding to genuine risks of extremism. My son Luke* has had difficulties from nursery age. He was first diagnosed […]

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Picture of a panel for story on Channel de-radicalisation programme in the UK CategoriesOur Cases Library Community Case Study

Inside Channel: A former Channel panel member speaks out on de-radicalisation programme

I am a senior social worker. For several months, I sat on Channel panels, the end point of the UK government’s controversial de-radicalisation programme Prevent, within my local authority. I was uncomfortable from the outset, not only because of everything I had already heard about Prevent and Channel, but because of what I witnessed first-hand once I was inside the de-radicalisation process. What a Channel panel looks like A Channel panel is a large, formal meeting, usually involving around 10 to 15 people. This includes senior local authority staff, members of the Prevent team, Prevent engagement officers, and counter-terrorism police officers. Cases are discussed one by one. An intervention provider (IP) or engagement officer presents the individual, outlines what contact they have had with them, and explains what they see as the person’s “vulnerabilities”. The panel then decides whether the individual should remain on Channel and what kind of “support […]

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CategoriesCommunity Case Study Education Case Study Our Cases Library

Father shares advice on getting son’s data deleted after Prevent referral is closed

It has been just over a year since my 10-year-old son was reported to Prevent for an essay he wrote on Palestine. After the referral was deemed to have been unnecessary, it has taken us this long to confirm that his data has been removed from all but one security-related database. To be honest, I don’t think the headmaster and teachers realised the full impact of Prevent and just how much would be involved and the impact it would have on us and our son. I remember the headmaster clearly saying that it was the first time that he had ever encountered this issue, and so I think from his perspective, he was just trying to do it by the book. But we now know that the local Prevent team had simply advised him to go ahead and make the Prevent referral.  Since then, he has been making much more […]

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picture of heathrow for case narrative on a prevent referral led to schedule 7 stop CategoriesCommunity Case Study Our Cases Library

After my Prevent referral was closed, I was approached to spy on Muslims

When I was told the Prevent referral was not being taken any further, I thought the story was over – until I got stopped at the airport and taken to a small room. But the whole experience has given me a gift that Prevent would never have expected. I got a knock on my front door from two police officers acting on a Prevent referral. They introduced themselves as being from counter-terrorism.  They said they believed I had been watching terrorist or ‘Islamist’ material. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it; I  thought someone had pulled a prank on me.  I just said “no comment”, because I didn’t know what else to say.   They started asking me if I had been looking at terrorist material. But they were very vague about what they meant by this. When I asked for clarification, one of the officers just said they had seen […]

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