Preparing for Prevent

While we're still awaiting the announcement of the date when universities and colleges will have a legal duty to "have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism", there's probably enough information available in the published guidance for organisations to start reviewing whether their current practice is likely to be sufficient to satisfy that duty.

Three resources are already available:

• Prevent for FE and Training
• Safe Campus Communities (HE)
• Oversight of Security-Sensitive Research material in UK universities

The Home Office guidance says that "compliance with this duty will reflect existing best practice and should not add significant new burdens on institutions". And it identifies areas of policy and process likely to be relevant to the duty:

• partnership,
• risk assessment and action plan,
• staff training,
• welfare and pastoral care/chaplaincy support,
• IT policies,
• student unions and societies.

(there are slight variations between sectors and countries).

So it seems well worth universities and colleges reviewing what they already have in those areas and comparing it to the relevant on-line resources, two of which are recommended in the guidance, and one has been developed to support it. This should identify both the existing practices that are likely to satisfy the duty, and those that may need work when more detailed guidance becomes available.