Student Conference 2016 Safeguarding

All FE providers have a duty to safeguard their students This is specified in: legislation and codes of practice that relate to those defined children and vulnerable adults

Some Background - The UK’s Counter Terrorism Strategy is known as CONTEST The CONTEST strategy is intended to deal with all forms of terrorism and continues to be based around four main areas of work which together enable us to reduce the threats we face and our vulnerabilities:   Pursue: the investigation and disruption of terrorist attacks; Prevent: work to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism and extremism; Protect: improving our protective security to stop a terrorist attack; and Prepare: working to minimise the impact of an attack and to recover from it as quickly as possible.

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 where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with Prevent covers all forms of terrorism and extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism The main aim of Prevent is to stop people from: becoming terrorists supporting terrorism At the heart of Prevent is safeguarding children and adults and providing early intervention to protect and divert people away from being drawn into terrorist activity Prevent addresses all forms of terrorism, but continues to ensure resources and effort are allocated on the basis of the current threats to our national security Up to this year Prevent involvement has been voluntary

The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 The new Counter Terrorism Legislation received Royal Assent on 12th February 2015. This Act has introduced responsibilities for a range of bodies which have significant interaction with people who could be vulnerable to radicalisation. These bodies include: local authorities police forces some NHS bodies Schools further and higher education providers prisons and young offender institutions providers of probation services  

The Act places responsibilities or Duty on the listed bodies The Act places responsibilities or Duty on the listed bodies. This duty is known as: The PREVENT DUTY The Duty requires these bodies to have: "due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism"

PREVENT is not about: discouraging students from having political and religious views and concerns PREVENT is about: safeguarding students by keeping them safe from being exploited by extremists supporting them to use those concerns or act on them in non-extremist ways

New definitions

Radicalisation Is usually a process not an event During that process it is possible to intervene to prevent vulnerable people being drawn into terrorist related activity Extremism Vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values( in Wales these will be known as Core Values) , including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs This also includes calls for the death of members of the British armed forces Violent Extremism Describes the attitudes and actions that condone violence as means to a political end

Core (British) Values Core values are defined as: "democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs“ Institutions are expected to encourage students to respect other people with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010

What are our responsibilities under the prevent duty? Governors Leaders and Managers Provider Staff

Governors and board members: should set the provider’s strategy for the Prevent duty as in all other areas. They should develop a short and medium term vision that is explicitly communicated to all parties must ensure that there is active engagement between sectors and partners must ensure that robust procedures are in place to ensure that any sub-contractors are aware of the Prevent duty and the sub-contractor is not inadvertently funding extremist organisations need to appreciate the sensitivity of the subject and the need to approach the issues carefully in all communities

must comply with the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010 in ensuring that their institution challenges discrimination and expects students to comply with this legislation must ensure that providers challenge racism, Islamophobia, tackling hate and prejudice based bullying, harassment and intimidation as part of the provider’s commitment to and exemplification of British values including “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs” are responsible for ensuring that the Duty and its requirements are communicated all levels i.e. to management, teaching staff, support staff, volunteers and students

Some key questions

What is the training strategy for the staff, students and volunteers What is the training strategy for the staff, students and volunteers? When and how will governors and board members be trained? Has a Prevent duty risk assessment taken place? When will the next Prevent duty risk assessment take place? What actions have been identified and how will they be addressed? Have policies been reviewed in relation to the Prevent duty? How far have Core (British) values been implemented into subjects and pastoral provision? What are the barriers, if any, in the implementation of the Prevent duty? How will they be overcome? How effective are relationships with external bodies such as the FE Prevent Coordinators, Local authority coordinators or police coordinators?

So….what next ?? The college is required by law to adopt the duty – this came into force for FE Institutions on 18th September 2015 NPTC Group of Colleges did this in April 2015 and to start the process off a risk assessment has been completed.

Having completed the initial risk assessment a number of further actions were identified. These include: Updating staff and supporting them to understand their responsibilities Reviewing policies to ensure they cover the Prevent duty - this need not always be explicit but it must comply with the Prevent duty and add new policies where there are gap – chaplaincy and prayer rooms, visiting speaker and lettings Consulting with students on the implementation of the Duty Amending the Staff and Student codes of conduct to reflect the responsibilities of the new Duty Having clear and agreed referral channels in place - every person in an institution including students should know what they need to do if they are concerned about a student or member of staff Ensuring that students have opportunities to develop critical thinking skills which will support them in resisting extremism, that they are able to discuss challenging topics and events in a supported environment Supporting all staff need to develop their own approaches to implementing British values to support students in building resilience to extremism while developing their political views The recent events in Paris, contact with WECTU officers and social media concerns means that we need to take a more broad approach. A working group has now been established that will look at the broader counter terrorism implications for us as a college and will address the safeguarding and broader physical security threat. We have agreed to embed the to ten security guidelines for the centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure into the safe learning communities risk assessment and to further develop the colleges response in this holistic way.

In Wales ESTYN………… Leadership and Management Training will be the body that judges the progress made by the organisations it currently inspects – they will be assessing progress in the following areas Leadership and Management Training Curriculum formal and informal Internet use Policies and Practise Referral pathways

Threat levels in the UK and Northern Ireland Current threat from international terrorism Current threat from Northern Ireland-related terrorism Threat levels are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack. LOW means an attack is unlikely. MODERATE means an attack is possible, but not likely SUBSTANTIAL means an attack is a strong possibility SEVERE means an attack is highly likely CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently

Links and resources: http://www.preventforfeandtraining.org.uk South Wales Police Prevent Co-ordinator – Pat Nolan Dyfed Powys Police Prevent Co-ordinator – Kevin Williams FE and HE Prevent Co-ordinator – Barrie Phillips WECTU Counter Terrorism Field Officer – Gareth Jones                                                              

Safeguarding Whose Business is it ?? Everyone's

Questions for Students Have students experienced approaches from extremist groups ? What can we do to raise students awareness ? How can we help students to become more resilient (stronger) to resist radicalisation ?

“The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, the Prevent Duty and what this means for you”