
What we can expect from the Prevent strategy this academic year
Here’s what students, staff and parents can expect this 2023-4 academic year after the Home Office accepted all of Shawcross’s recommendations.
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Prevent Cases

The Hijab Case
Sector: Education and childcare Date: July 2016 Gender: Female Location: North West BE is 10 years old. While she was at Hajj with her family, she decided to start wearing the hijab. On her return to school the head teacher requested the family attend a meeting to discuss an alleged ‘uniform violation’. BE’s mother was advised during the meeting to stop BE from wearing the hijab and that BE would be better suited to wearing it when she was at high school where nobody knew her. BE’s mother was shocked and overwhelmed by this. The school sent the following in a letter to the parents: BE’s mother made formal complaints against the school. BE’s mother was then asked to attend a meeting regarding the complaint. BE’s mother was informed that BE was the ‘’ringleader’’ of negative activities during religious lessons. It transpired that BE had asked if

The Fire Alarm Case
Sector: Education and childcare Date: December 2016 Gender: Male Location: East of England JT is 16 years old. He was at school on the playground with his friends when the fire alarm went off. One of JT’s friends sarcastically said to him ‘’why did you blow up the school again?’’ JT responded in a similar way that ‘’Shush don’t let them know’’. JT’s teacher then asked whether this was an appropriate thing to say but JT did not hear her properly as the other children were laughing and joking around him. The next day, JT and his friend were called into the office. There were three teachers in the room, one of whom had a written a statement about what had happened during the fire alarm. The teacher stated that someone had said ‘’Insha’Allah, Allahuakbar Brother Omar’’ which was a quote from the film Four Lions. JT’s friend was asked if

The Nice Attack Discussion
Sector: Education and childcare Date: July 2016 Gender: Male Location: West Midlands AC is 17 years old. There was a discussion in class concerning the Nice attack with AC’s tutor and a few other students. While AC said that the attack was bad, he also said that he could understand why the attacker had done what he did. AC then clarified that he was referring to racism and social deprivation faced by North African immigrants in France, which lead to feelings of despair. The school said they had clarified the comments with AC and acknowledged that it was just clumsy use of words. However, after contacting the local PREVENT lead about the matter, the school decided to refer AC to the local authority. Prevent Watch supported the family and provided AC’s father with information concerning PREVENT and informed him about the Channel Programme. Furthermore, Prevent Watch provided AC’s father with information concerning his

The Religious Studies Video Case
Sector: Education Date: February 2016 Gender: Female Location: South East AB is 11 eleven years old and attends secondary school. During her religious studies class, the teacher introduced the topic of multiculturalism in society; in particular what has taken place in the schools locale. The children were shown a video but only watched about a minute and a half of the full 5 minutes of the video. The clip introduced statistics on the number of residents in the locality and the percentage that was Muslim. The clip continued with a text, which states “following series of high profile cases related to Islamic extremism, [the] Council formulated a new strategy to tackle religious supremacism within their local Muslim community.” There were a series of mini clips highlighting the reason behind the new initiative. The clips were followed by this text “the idea was to show the rest of the country that if non-Muslims
The Anti-War Protest Case
Sector: Police Date: December 2014 Gender: Male Location: South Yorkshire MM supported the government’s decision to go to war in Iraq 2003. He was enthusiastically supportive of the government’s armed forces. However, he became aware of a number of atrocities committed by British service personnel and his support for the war diminished. Overtime, he became anti-war and a self-confessed pacifist and performed a number of protests in a non-violent and peaceful manner, including flying the Iraqi flag to the Irish tri color flag. A Prevent officer subsequently visited MM’s home and he was asked about why he was protesting and why he was flying these particular flags. Later on, MM was in the vicinity of an army recruitment centre raising awareness about the death of Baha Mousa at the hands of the British military. After the protest MM had another meeting with the Prevent officer who told MM it was because of
Community Group & Government Funding
Sector: Education and childcare Date: March 2016 Location: South East OFM is a grassroots community co-operative made up of volunteers from its locality. They focus on building economic development and regeneration practices to benefit the local community. As part of delivering these adult learning courses, OFM was granted funding by a body whose core funding comes from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. To receive the funding, OFM were informed that they were required to attend the Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP) training. OFM were unaware that this was an obligation to receive the funding. OFM decided that they did not wish to attend the training. OFM said that the Prevent programme is viewed with suspicion by a large section of the local community. OFM said that engaging with such a programme would destroy the trust and respect that the organisation relies upon to engage with sections
The Prevent Duty



The Prevent Duty is championed by the government as an effective strategy to prevent terrorism, however, evidence suggests this is having an adverse effect on communities. Thousands of Prevent referrals are made each year but very few of them lead to any intervention.
Prevent Watch has supported hundreds of people impacted by Prevent. Our case studies show a huge failing of the Prevent Duty. We provide a free helpline with dedicated case workers to support people impacted by the Prevent Duty. We provide access to lawyers, media, research and much more.
What we’re working on

Report: A Response to the Shawcross Report

Report: The People’s Review of Prevent
On 12 February 2019, the government committed to carrying out an independent review of Prevent. We explain why the Government’s review of Prevent resulted in a boycott across civic society and the resultant alternative, the People’s Review of Prevent.

The Trojan Horse Affair
The Trojan Horse Affair ensured the Prevent was embedded in legislation under the guise of safeguarding. We analyse the events that unfolded in 2014 to reveal how they impact Prevent as we know it today.
Information and Support

Newsletter
Know your rights when dealing with Prevent officers. We provide the latest here.

Ways to Support
Your commitment has been vital to assisting hundreds of families across the UK who have been impacted by Prevent.
Prevent Watch appreciates every supporter and donor who helps to keep our helpline and supporting services running. Although we have helped hundreds of individuals we know that thousands of individuals are referred to Prevent each year and we rely on your help to be able to reach every person who needs our support.
We are incredibly grateful for your ongoing support.
Dr Layla Aitlhadj
Director, Prevent Watch