Earlier this year Government laid out their plans and guidance on the ‘Prevent Duty’ initiative which is one of four strands that make up the Counter Terrorism Strategy (CONTEST), which is designed to reduce the risk of terrorism to the UK and its interests overseas.

So what does this have to do with FE?

The Counter Terrorism & Security Act 2015 (Risk of Being Drawn into Terrorism – Amendment and Guidance) came into effect on 1st of July for most affected ‘specified authorities’, with the FE version due to be released shortly. This legislation will require further education institutions to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism, and advises that they must provide information to the monitoring authority to prove compliance with this duty, moreover adherence to the act will also form part of the OfSTED Inspection Framework from September 2015.

Further education establishments affected are categorised as: further education institutions on the Skills Funding Agency register of training organisations, including sub-contractors which receive more than £100,000 of SFA funding via lead providers.

This includes:

  • approximately 950 further education colleges and independent providers that are eligible to receive public funding from the SFA to deliver education and training
  • 93 Sixth Form Colleges and other organisations funded by the Education Funding Agency to deliver post 16 education and training
  • further education institutions in Wales funded by the Welsh Government
  • private further education institutions who are not in receipt of public funding who may be on the UK Register of Learning Providers and have similar characteristics to those on the register. These are defined as institutions that have at least 250 students who are undertaking courses in preparation for examinations which either receive public funding or are regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation or the Welsh Government

A further document called ‘Prevent Duty Guidance: for England and Wales’ has been produced that clearly states that staff working at further education institutions are expected to undertake training to comply with the duty.

Where can you get help with information and training?

Prevent Coordinators

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills have advised that Universities UK host a website with the details of regional Prevent Coordinators. The coordinators provide information on the Prevent strategy, details of training courses (such as Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent – WRAP) and links to relevant stakeholders in each region including the local authority.

Their details along with other background material such as case studies can be found at:www.safecampuscommunities.ac.uk

The Education and Training Foundation

As the independent body responsible for standards and quality improvement for further education, the Education and Training Foundation will work with the sector to ensure that appropriate training is available. This will include and draw from training provided through the network of Prevent co-ordinators. Their website offers lots of information and helpful documents such as risk assessments and action plans. www.preventforfeandtraining.org.uk

Is online training available?

The Education and Training Foundation are developing an online training module designed for FE providers. These will support all college staff and volunteers by raising awareness of the Prevent Duty. This resource is designed to be appropriate for practitioners, support staff, leaders and managers and governors. The training module is advertised to be available in summer 2015.

In the meantime they are advising anyone wishing to undertake generic Prevent and Channel training before this is available to do Channel Awareness Training.

Protocol – ensure our clients stay compliant

Compliance is engrained into all Protocol systems and processes, our dedicated Compliance Team have been actively following the progress of the Prevent Duty guidance and ensuring we are geared up to keeping our client’s compliant for when the duty comes into play. Since the May 2015 we have been asking our candidates to complete the Channel Awareness Training in preparation, while we await the launch of the new ETF module; so you can rest assured that engaging staff through Protocol won’t leave you exposed and we will do everything we can to assist you in achieving a positive OfSTED inspection come September 2015.

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