This policy defines the responsibilities, processes and procedures relating to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.
Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
The Prevent strategy:
Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views.
Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support.
Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with.
The strategy covers all forms of terrorism, including far right extremism and some aspects of nonviolent extremism.
The Home Office works with local authorities, a wide range of government departments, and community organisations to deliver the Prevent strategy. The police also play a significant role in Prevent, in much the same way as they do when taking a preventative approach to other crimes.
The Home Office uses a range of measures to challenge extremism in the UK, including:
Where necessary, preventing apologists for terrorism and extremism from travelling to this country.
Giving guidance to local authorities and institutions to understand the threat from extremism and the statutory powers available to them to challenge extremist speakers.
Funding a specialist police unit which works to remove online content that breaches terrorist legislation.
Supporting community-based campaigns and activity which can effectively rebut terrorist and extremist propaganda and offer alternative views to our most vulnerable target audiences - in this context they work with a range of civil society organisations.
Supporting people who are at risk of being drawn into terrorist activity through the Channel process, which involves several agencies working together to give individuals access to services such as health and education, specialist mentoring and diversionary activities.
The Sixth Form Bolton is committed to supporting all learners through its safeguarding agenda in order to prevent potential radicalisation.
2.1 This policy is applicable to all students within The Sixth Form College
2.2 This policy covers the responsibilities for reporting and recording incidents, and college procedures that will be followed.
3.1 College – The Sixth Form, Bolton
3.2 Terrorism is an action that endangers or causes serious violence to a person/people; causes serious damage to property; or seriously interferes or disrupts an electronic system. The use or threat must be designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public and is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.”
3.3 Channel is a voluntary, confidential support programme which focuses on providing support at an early stage to people who are identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. Prevent referrals may be passed to a multi-agency Channel panel, which will discuss the individual referred to determine whether they are vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism and consider the appropriate support required. A representative from the school or college may be asked to attend the Channel panel to help with this assessment. An individual’s engagement with the programme is entirely voluntary at all stages
3.4 Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Darren MacFarlane (Head of Learning Services & Senior Leadership Team Member) holds strategic oversight for Prevent
3.5 Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads (DDSLs): Emma Collier and Tracey Kavanagh oversee daily operational coordination and liaise with the DSL when Prevent concerns are highlighted.
Section 26(1) of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (the CTSA) imposes a duty on ‘specified authorities’, when exercising their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. There is an important role for further education in helping prevent people being drawn into terrorism, which includes not just violent extremism but also nonviolent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit. It is a condition of funding that all further education must comply with relevant legislation and any statutory responsibilities associated with the delivery of education and safeguarding of learners.
The Sixth Form Bolton recognises its statutory obligations to safeguard and prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. This document offers guidance and outlines procedures that should be followed in all cases of suspected radicalisation and situations of serious risk.
The college aligns its Prevent duties under five general themes:
Risk Assessment & Action Planning: Assessing regional threats (with Bolton Local Authority) and identifying individual student vulnerabilities.
Partnership Working: Close collaboration with Bolton LA Safeguarding Partners, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Prevent Team, and Channel Panels.
Staff Training: Mandatory training for all staff to spot signs of radicalisation and exemplify British Values.
IT Filtering & Online Safety: Utilising Smoothwall to filter and monitor search traffic, AI tools, and smart devices across all network endpoints.
External Speakers & Events: Rigorous vetting of external speakers to prevent platforming of extremist propaganda.
5.1 Colleges are expected to assess the risk of children/young people being drawn into terrorism, including support for extremist ideas that are part of terrorist ideology. This means being able to demonstrate both a general understanding of the risks affecting children and young people in the area and a specific understanding of how to identify individual children/a young person who may be at risk of radicalisation and what to do to support them. Colleges should have clear procedures in place for protecting children/young people at risk of radicalisation and action plan to mitigate risks. At The Sixth Form Bolton these procedures form part of existing safeguarding policies.
5.2 The Prevent duty builds on existing local partnership arrangements. For example, governing bodies should ensure that their safeguarding arrangements take into account the policies and procedures of Local Authority Safeguarding Partners, we use the Bolton Authority as our key partner. At The Sixth Form Bolton these arrangements are written and reviewed the Head of Learning Services, the assistant principal and his deputy safeguarding team with our designated governor. Safeguarding is a regular focus at Governor’s meetings and at weekly senior management team meetings.
5.3 The Prevent guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children/young people at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. All staff and students at The Sixth Form Bolton undertake mandatory Prevent and Equality & Diversity training. This ensures we are aware of the Prevent agenda and enables teachers and others supporting delivery of the curriculum to use opportunities in learning to educate and challenge. It features in our tutorials delivered by our progress coaches and is a feature of our annual Prevent and British Values day. Also this allows all staff to exemplify British values in their management, teaching and through general behaviours in college, including through opportunities in the curriculum.
5.4 Colleges must ensure that children/young people are safe from terrorist and extremist material when accessing the internet. Schools should ensure that suitable filtering is in place. At The Sixth Form Bolton we use Smoothwall for this purpose as part of our Protect strategy. It is also important that schools/colleges teach pupils/students about online safety more generally. This is included in both course, professional growth programme content and pastoral curriculums at The Sixth Form Bolton.
The Department for Education has also published advice for colleges on the Prevent duty. The advice is intended to complement the Prevent guidance and signposts other sources of advice and support.
In order to meet our statutory obligations and duties The Sixth Form Bolton will:
Promote and reinforce shared values; to create space for free and open debate; to listen to and support the learner voice. The annual Prevent and British Values Day, in October, ensures this agenda is launched early in the students’ journey with us.
Break down segregation among different learner communities including supporting interfaith and inter-cultural dialogue and understanding, and to engage all learners in playing a full and active role in wider engagement in society. The tutorial scheme of work supports this strategy as does our enrichment and learner voice team.
Ensure learner safety and that the College is free from bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Provide support for learners who may be at risk and appropriate sources of advice and guidance. Working closely with our local partners who we can refer students to who demonstrate some concerning behaviours. CPOMS helps us to monitor this data and reporting.
Ensure that learners and staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities in preventing violent extremism. Through the annual Prevent and British Values Day and complemented with the tutorial materials and work within the curriculum content.
Recognise current practice which contributes to the Prevent agenda.
Identify areas for improvement via CPOMS reporting regularly and Smoothwall alerts received. Working closely with our external agencies ensures we remain aware of local concerns and changes in our learners’ behaviours within the town.
To provide a whole College ethos which upholds our core values of shared responsibility and wellbeing for all learners, staff and visitors and promotes respect, equality and diversity and understanding. This will be achieved through:
Promoting the British core values of respect, equality and diversity, law, democratic society, learner voice and participation e.g. via learner voice representation, student governor roles and learner voice activities across the year. The Sixth Form Bolton provides opportunities to capture the learner voice four times per year and holds focus groups to seek student opinions. Elections for the roles within the learner voice promote democracy and students attend meetings with the principal prior to each of the four annual student affairs meetings with the governing body.
Building staff and learner understanding of the issues and confidence to deal with them through staff training, planned and considered communication. This takes place through our professional growth programme for staff and via tutorials for the learners.
Encouraging engagement with our local community and external agencies.
Actively working with local feeder schools, Bolton College, local authorities, police and other appropriate agencies.
To provide an academic, pastoral and wider curriculum, which by undermining extremist ideology and supporting the learner voice, promotes knowledge, skills and understanding to build the resilience of our learners, this will be achieved through:
Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing and community cohesion.
Promoting wider skill development such as social and emotional aspects of learning.
A curriculum adapted to recognise local needs, challenge extremist narratives and promote universal rights.
Teaching and learning strategies which explore controversial issues in a way which promotes critical analysis and pro-social values.
Use of external programmes or speakers to support learning while ensuring that the input supports the College goals and our ore values.
Encouraging active citizenship and learner voice.
To ensure that staff within The Sixth Form Bolton are confident to take preventative and responsive steps working with partner professionals, families and communities. This will be achieved through:
Ongoing strong and effective learner support through our learning services team, pastoral system and progress coaches.
Existing ongoing community links and Smoothwall updates; remaining aware of key events and issues in the locality.
Implementing the College equality, diversity and inclusion policy complemented with anti-bullying strategies and challenging all discriminatory behaviour.
Recognising factors which may increase risk to a learner i.e., vulnerability, disadvantage or hardship and implementing early risk management strategies through our learning services team.
Sign posting learners and staff to access support in College from the BSafe team and/or external agencies.
Supporting at risk learners through learning services, the BSafe team and external crime prevention strategies and programmes.
To ensure that the College monitors ongoing risks and we are ready to deal appropriately with issues as they arise. The Sixth Form Bolton will:
Understand the nature of all potential threats from extremism/violent extremism and how this may impact directly or indirectly on the learners within the College.
Identify potential risks within the College and from external influences using our working partnerships with the local authority safeguarding team, Smoothwall and external agencies.
Ensure measures are in place to minimise the potential for acts of extremism/violent extremists within the College and our staff/student body.
Ensuring that invacuation and lock down plans are in place to respond appropriately to a threat or incident within the College.
Responding appropriately to events reported via local, national or international news that may impact on learners, staff and our local communities.
Develop effective ICT security, filtering settings and responsible user policies.
The Sixth Form Bolton holds as one of its highest priorities the health, safety and welfare of everyone within our College or when engaged in activities that come under the responsibility of the College. This includes events, trips, residentials and work experience/placements.
The Sixth Form Bolton has a duty to ensure that staff and volunteers fulfil their responsibilities to prevent radicalisation and to report any discovered or suspected.
The College’s Prevent arrangements are included in the induction programme for new staff and annual differentiated safeguarding training is part of the College professional development programme on an ongoing basis.
The Sixth Form Bolton will work with appropriate local agencies, and in particular Local Authority Safeguarding Partners, the Police Team and other schools and Colleges to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are safeguarded through the effective operation of the College's safeguarding procedures.
The Sixth Form Bolton recognises that anybody can be radicalised and all issues will be taken seriously and treated in accordance with the College’s safeguarding or HR procedures.
The Sixth Form Bolton recognises that it is the responsibility of all staff to act upon any concern no matter how small or trivial it may seem. This is to be recorded on CPOMS.
The Sixth Form Bolton recognises its responsibility to implement, maintain and regularly review the procedures, the Prevent Day and tutorial materials that are designed to prevent radicalisation.
The Sixth Form Bolton requires all staff to follow the Prevent policy.
The Sixth Form Bolton is committed to supporting, resourcing and training all staff in Prevent Awareness.
The Governors of The Sixth Form Bolton have a responsibility to ensure:
The college meets its Prevent Duty in line with statutory guidance.
A policy is in place, available and communicated to all staff – including temporary staff on induction. The policy is in accordance with government guidance and refers to locally agreed procedures, is updated annually, and available to all stakeholders.
All staff and students undertake appropriate Prevent training.
A senior member of the college’s senior leaders’ team is designated to take lead responsibility for Prevent (Designated Safeguarding Lead).
Police and other appropriate agencies are notified by the DSL or College principal, in the case of staff, where there is a cause for concern, so that they can investigate and take necessary action.
They are aware as to how learners are taught about the Colleges safeguarding policy, including online, through teaching and learning, the pastoral team and wider curriculum offer.
There is an annual review of this policy and procedures/safeguarding arrangements and this is presented to the governing body annually by the safeguarding governor.
Prevent arrangements are immediately remedied where deficiencies are identified.
The head of learning services and member of the college’s senior leadership team with strategic responsibility for Prevent issues is the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Darren MacFarlane.
The Designated Deputy Safeguarding Leads (DDSL) with operational responsibility for Prevent, Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection issues is the Safeguarding Coordinator who is responsible for day to-day co-coordination and action liaising with other agencies is Emma Collier and Tracey Kavanagh.
The DSL and DDSL`s know:
How to identify the signs of radicalisation.
The Prevent strategy, duty and guidance.
The role and responsibilities of the Police and how to liaise with them.
The requirements of accurate record keeping.
They will also:
Follow the laid down procedures.
Report any concerns to the Police.
Notify, as appropriate, the Principal and the deputy principal immediately (within at least 12 hours).
Keep a record of issues reported to them via CPOMS for learners or through HR for staff
Design and plan the annual Prevent and British Values day to produce information and advice, relating to radicalisation and the Prevent strategy.
Note: In the case of a report involving school pupils under the age of 16 attending college, the DSL/DDSL will liaise with the relevant school and ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to safeguard the child/children.
It is the responsibility of all staff working within the College to record and report concerns in relation to the Prevent agenda i.e., where they believe a person is being drawn into terrorism. This includes suspected radicalisation and situations of serious risk.
This means:
Awareness - Staff should be aware of changes in learner behaviour, particularly isolation or withdrawal from activities previously enjoyed. In this instance, speak with the learner to try to establish the cause – if in doubt, seek advice. Any unexplained absences where the learner cannot be contacted or the family are unable to satisfactorily explain the learner absence or state their whereabouts, should be referred to the DSL/DDSL via CPOMS.
External Influences - staff should report any literature whether in the form of books, leaflets, posters, or on line that promotes extremist activities.
Reporting – If a member of staff has any concern however apparently trivial it is essential to refer to the college DSL/DDSL to prevent escalation in the case of an actual threat / risk.
The College DSL/DDSL`s are the first point of contact for staff where concerns have been raised in person or via CPOMS. The College DSL/DDSLs have links with Regional Prevent Co-ordinators and specialist police advisors via the regional ‘Channel co-ordinator’.
Where there is a concern about a member of staff the DSL will liaise directly with the Principal following the Early Steps protocols.
11.1 The DSL/DDSL`s act as a pivot for College information all concerns must be reported via CPOMS, even small in nature, as it may form a part of a much larger picture.
11.2 The DSL/DDSL`s may contact Greater Manchester Police Prevent Team or the FE Prevent Coordinator for the local authority for guidance without revealing names.
11.3 The DSL/DDSL`s may speak to the student and will take overall responsibility for recording essential information about each case and for collecting reports and notes as appropriate all stored within CPOMS.
11.4 Any detailed information about a case will be held securely with the main DSL/DDSL`s for the College.
11.5 If contact cannot be made with any of the DSL/DDSL`s within 2 hours staff should refer to the BeSafe team who may contact the local authority/police prevent teams for guidance.
These procedures are designed to be simple and clear but inevitably cannot cover all eventualities. Any queries should be addressed to the DSL/DDSL`s or one of the other named people in this document.
Monitoring occurs across all devices in The Sixth Form Bolton here the use of the internet and keystrokes. In use is the Colleges a robust firewall system and Smoothwall systems.
Internet traffic is monitored via our firewall, and Smoothwall to identify web sites which may have content which would cause concern. This includes Artificial Intelligence and Smart Technology. There is a separate policy for each of these that details how they should be used appropriately.
The DSL, DDSL`s and Head of IT will review daily reports and action any concerns
Any issue arising regarding internet traffic is addressed directly with the student or staff member and appropriate and commensurate action taken via the DSL, DDSL or HR team.
Reports of Hate Crime are reported to the DDSL in person with the learner present or via CPOMS
The DSL/Deputy DSL`s may also report the incident directly to the police
There may be occasions when college delivers a mixture of on-site and remote learning or completely switches to remote learning. Should this happen it is essential that staff continue to refer any safeguarding concerns they have regarding a student as per this policy Online safety - It is more important than ever that The Sixth Form Bolton provides a safe environment online. College will continue to ensure that appropriate filters are in place to protect students when they are online on the college’s IT systems or recommended resources.
If you are piloting new technology or have any concerns, please contact the IT team for advice and guidance. It is especially important that all staff who interact with students, online, continue to look out for signs a student may be at risk. Any such concerns should be dealt with as per the safeguarding policy and where appropriate, referrals should be made via CPOMS for the DSL/DDSL`s to respond to.
The Department of Education has provided separate guidance on providing education remotely. It will set out 4 key areas that leaders should consider as part of any remote learning strategy. This includes the use of technology. Recently published guidance from the UK Safer Internet Centre on safe remote learning and from the London Grid for Learning on the use of videos and livestreaming could help plan online lessons and/or activities and plan them safely.
Staff need to consider the safety of their students when they are asked to work online. The starting point for online teaching should be that the same principles as set out in the college or college’s code of conduct. College must ensure any use of online learning tools and systems is in line with privacy and data protection/GDPR requirements.
Procedures, detailed in this policy, should be read in conjunction with information and guidance provided across the Colleges policies.
It is not The Sixth Form Bolton`s responsibility to investigate but to support and refer as appropriate.
Name of Policy | Prevent Policy 2026/27 |
Date Reviewed | September 2025 |
Next Review | September 2026 |
JCC Consultation / Approval | Not required |
Governing Corporation Approval | Not required but recommended |
Cross Reference to other Policies / Source Documents | Code of Conduct Student Handbook Parents Handbook Student Contracts Policy Student Behaviour/ Expectations Policy Safeguarding/child protection policy Education Act 2011 Skills and Post-16 Act 2022 Department for Education advice for colleges on the Prevent duty Early Steps protocols AI Policies Smart Technology Policy |
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