The Prevent Duty is the responsibility placed on everyone in education to stop children from being drawn into terrorism.
This page explains whether all school governors need Prevent training, where they can find courses and how often their training needs updating.
What is the Prevent Duty?
The Prevent Duty comes from the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. This law places a responsibility on a number of “specified authorities” to prevent people becoming terrorists or being radicalised into extremism.
“A specified authority must, in the exercise of its functions, have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.”
Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015
Does the Prevent Duty apply to both maintained schools and academies?
Yes. The definition of a “specified authority” in the law includes both maintained schools and academies.
Do all school governors need Prevent training?
This isn’t crystal clear, but in my view the answer is yes.
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is the statutory guidance on safeguarding that all schools must follow. It says that all governors should receive “appropriate safeguarding and child protection (including online) training at induction”.
“Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection (including online) training at induction.
“This training should equip them with the knowledge to provide strategic challenge to test and assure themselves that the safeguarding policies and procedures in place in schools and colleges are effective and support the delivery of a robust whole school approach to safeguarding.”
Keeping Children Safe in Education
KCSIE does not mention Prevent training for governors specifically. However, it does make clear that the Prevent duty is part of the “wider safeguarding obligations” that apply to schools.
“The Prevent duty should be seen as part of schools’ and colleges’ wider safeguarding obligations.”
Keeping Children Safe in Education
Therefore I would argue that all governors need to take Prevent training because it is part of their required safeguarding training.
Where can we find Prevent duty training for governors?
The Home Office provide free online Prevent duty training for school governors. This is how the Home Office describe the course.
“This e-learning course provides an understanding of what radicalisation, extremism and terrorism are. It covers how to identify and explore concerning behaviours and how to raise concerns.”
Home Office
Governors who have never completed a Prevent course before should take the Awareness Course.
Governors who have taken a Prevent course in the past and are updating their knowledge can take the Refresher Awareness Course.
(There are two other Home Office courses available which are not applicable to governors: one on referrals for your Designated Safeguarding Lead who will be a member of staff and one on Channel panels which are not run by governors.)
If your school pays for a subscription to GovernorHub Knowledge they also offer governor training on the Prevent duty.
How long do the Prevent courses take?
The Home Office say their Prevent course should take around 30 to 40 minutes. I would allow a maximum of 30 minutes to be honest as it is quite straightforward. Their refresher course takes 20 to 30 minutes.
GovernorHub Knowledge say their Prevent training takes up to two hours.
How often does Prevent training need to be updated?
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) says that all governors/trustees should receive safeguarding training that is “regularly updated”.
“Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection (including online) training at induction.
“Their training should be regularly updated.”
Keeping Children Safe in Education
KCSIE does not define the term “regularly” so I asked governance colleagues who follow my Ask A Clerk Twitter account how they would define “regularly” in this context.
Out of over 100 votes the consensus with 86% of the vote was that safeguarding training for governors should be updated annually.
Almost 10% said that training should be taken twice a year or more. Only 4% said safeguarding training should be taken every two years or every three years.
Should the clerk keep certificates of completion?
Yes, it’s a good idea to collect the certificates. Anyone who completes the Home Office or GovernorHub Knowledge Prevent duty course is given a certificate of proof.
There’s no statutory duty to keep training certificates for school governors, but for any safeguarding training I would recommend keeping hold of certificates. This is because you may be asked to show proof of attendance to OFSTED or during a safeguarding audit.
In fact the clerk may wish to keep all training certificates because it helps them compile the training record and remind governors when their training is coming up for renewal.
Where can governors read more about Prevent?
The DfE provide non-statutory advice for schools on the Prevent duty.