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The implementation of the Prevent duty in health erodes the trust between healthcare employees and their patients. Whatever your concern, these cases and resources are here to support you.

Piles of folders for article on Fulford Inquiry CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

Southport Inquiry highlights how Prevent deprofessionalises public services

The Southport Inquiry embodies our warning that the Prevent duty has created conditions in which teachers, social workers and other frontline professionals are increasingly unable to act on their own expertise, and are required to defer to a counter-terrorism framework, writes Dr Layla Aitlhadj. In January of 2025, then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced there would be a public inquiry into the Southport attack that took the lives of 3 young girls, injured many more and left their families and the nation in grief. Following the trial of the perpetrator, Axel Rudukubana, it had become public knowledge that he had been known to several agencies and referred to Prevent three times. The inquiry was described by the Home Secretary as a way to “get to the truth of what happened and what needs to change”. The next day Prime Minister Keir Starmer re-emphasised the fact that the perpetrator had been […]

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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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Prevent duty in Scotland CategoriesLatest Expert Views Community Expert View Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

How is the Prevent duty in Scotland implemented and who is standing against it?

Legal guidance compels the Prevent duty in Scotland so public authorities must implement the policy. A closer look at key differences in their approach provides insights for action and directs us to the organisations resisting the Prevent duty in Scotland. By Zara W. Tahir National security, and by extension, counter terrorism, remains a reserved matter in Scotland, and therefore under Westminster control.  However, one arm of the counter-terorrism strategy, the Prevent duty, requires the cooperation of public institutions north of the border, many of which are devolved.  This tension between reserved and devolved powers has led to key differences in how the Prevent duty is implemented in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, particularly England. Scottish MPs voice concerns with Prevent  In 2015, the Counterterrorism and Security Act was debated for five days in the UK Parliament. MPs raised concerns about its application in Scotland; these criticisms of the […]

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Picture of fried chicken for a story criticizing the Prevent strategy in the UK and Channel deradicalisation for children with unmet mental health needs CategoriesLatest Expert Views Education Expert View Health Expert View Our Expert Views

Why the Channel programme linked to the Prevent strategy is the junk food of public safety

In 2005, when Jamie Oliver exposed what really went into chicken nuggets on his School Dinners series, parents were horrified. What they thought was a proper hot meal turned out to be processed scraps, stripped of nutrition and bulked out with additives. The same reaction should meet the Channel programme. Promoted as safeguarding against radicalisation, it is in reality a highly processed product: stripped of genuine social care and support, repackaged with the additives of counter-terrorism, and sold back to us as if it were the nourishment required for a healthy society. According to the Home Office statistics, 5,014 individuals have been referred to Channel for ‘de-radicalisation’ since 2015. A Channel intervention is linked to the Prevent strategy in the UK. Out of a total number (58,127) of Prevent referrals as a result of the strategy, just 8.6% are deemed to be at risk of ‘radicalisation’ and deemed suitable for […]

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RSI: New documents show incoherent government approach to autism and other Prevent monitoring

New government documents obtained by Rights & Security International (RSI) in relation to Prevent monitoring show what they believe is an incoherent and underinformed approach among officials toward the referral of autistic people to the Prevent and Channel counter-terrorism programmes. RSI states that these documents also point to incoherent and, in their view, careless approaches to assessing Prevent’s other equality impacts, particularly where race and religion are concerned. These deeply flawed practices showing a seeming indifference to potential ableism, racism, Islamophobia and other discrimination have persisted for years. RSI obtained a report on Channel and autism that the Home Office commissioned from a market research firm then known as Ipsos MORI (now Ipsos) and that was completed in 2021. It also obtained three EIAs from 2023 that pertain to Prevent, Channel, and the Home Offices response to an external review of Prevent completed by Sir William Shawcross in February 2023. […]

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Prevent Learning Review: Five reasons why the recommendations are misleading

Jump to… The political framing of the Southport atrocity as a Prevent failure ignores the counter-terrorism mechanisms beyond the Prevent framework.  Following the revelation that Axel Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021, there has been much discussion about Prevent’s role in relation to the atrocity in Southport. Prior to the wider public inquiry under the new independent Prevent commissioner Lord Anderson, a review focused on Prevent had been commissioned by the Home Office and Counter Terrorism Policing, the “Prevent Learning Review: Southport Attack”. Media coverage of its publication reports serious failures in the government’s Prevent strategy. These are associated with the fact that no appropriate action seemed to have been taken, despite Rudakubana having been reported to Prevent three times. The claims are firstly that these should have been treated cumulatively, rather than as three separate incidents. Secondly, it is claimed  that three referrals warranted […]

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Title page for Runnymede report entitled Islamophobia: the intensification of racism against Muslim communities in the UK CategoriesCommunity Resources Health Resources Reports

Runnymede Trust: Islamophobia – the intensification of racism against Muslim communities in the UK

Islamophobia: the intensification of racism against Muslim communities in the UK shows that Islamophobia is growing in the UK, and highlights its structural nature across British society. Islamophobia in the UK has deep roots that manifest in many forms. The sense that Muslim people are a threat to Britain has become overt and direct. Whether it is politicians speaking from the benches in parliament, or mainstream headlines screaming about ‘Islamist extremists’ when describing peaceful protestors, Islamophobia has reached fever pitch in the UK. These narratives have cast British Muslims as ‘outsiders’ with foreign loyalties, as a menace to society. It is time that we put a rational conversation back on the agenda. This report is an opportunity to understand both the nature and breadth of Islamophobia in the UK, with the scope to build anti-racist solidarities as an outcome, to eradicate its existence. It features a chapter by Prevent Watch […]

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Financial Times: Weaponised autism and the extremist threat facing children

A Financial Times investigation reveals that autism and the extremist threat is the latest problem evolving behind the scenes of Prevent, as ministers seek to stem public criticism of the counter-terrorism programme. Increasingly, Britons being referred to Prevent are not only children, but people who are autistic. It seems that a high number of minors with neurodiversity are being swept up in a programme. There is some consensus among forensic psychiatrists and criminal psychologists that, while people with autism and related conditions are less likely to break the law than their neurotypical peers, they may be more vulnerable to grooming and radicalisation. This apparent trend has spread far beyond the UK, with recent cases in the US, Canada and Australia. So has the conundrum for police and intelligence professionals more used to tracking groups of adult terrorists meeting in person than responding to what some call “weaponised autism”, among teenagers […]

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