New Prevent Guidance for DSLs: What Education Providers Need to Know

28 Sept

The Department for Education has published new practical Prevent guidance for designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) and those with safeguarding responsibilities across education.

Published on 24 September 2026, the updated resources are designed to support education settings when responding to concerns that a learner may be susceptible to radicalisation.

It is important to be clear about what has and has not changed.

This is not a replacement for the statutory Prevent Duty Guidance. The statutory Prevent duty remains in place. Instead, the Department for Education has replaced its previous supporting materials on safeguarding learners susceptible to radicalisation with new practical guidance intended to help DSLs apply their responsibilities in practice.

What has been published?

The Department for Education has introduced three resources:

1. The Prevent duty: practical guidance for designated safeguarding leads

This provides practical information for DSLs and safeguarding leads about Prevent, recognising and assessing concerns, referrals and responding appropriately.

It reinforces an important principle: Prevent is part of safeguarding.

Prevent focuses on identifying and supporting individuals who may be susceptible to radicalisation before risks escalate.

2. Channel meetings: practical guidance for designated safeguarding leads

The second resource supports DSLs in understanding the Channel process and their potential role when a learner is being considered for, or receiving, support through Channel.

This is particularly helpful because practitioners may understand when to raise a Prevent concern but be less familiar with what happens after a referral and how education providers may contribute to the multi-agency response.

3. Safeguarding learners susceptible to radicalisation: next-step checklists

For us, this is one of the most practically useful additions.

The checklists provide a structured framework for assessing concerns rather than jumping from an observed behaviour directly to a Prevent referral.

The process encourages practitioners to:

Notice – clearly identify what has caused concern and whether this represents an isolated incident or a developing pattern.

Check – speak with the learner where appropriate, review relevant safeguarding, attendance, behaviour and wellbeing information and gather information from colleagues.

Context – consider vulnerabilities, protective factors, family and peer influences, environmental factors and online influences.

Seek advice and record – involve appropriate safeguarding, Prevent and SEND professionals where necessary and clearly record concerns, actions, advice and the rationale behind decisions.

Decide – consider the whole safeguarding picture and whether enough information has been gathered to make a balanced and proportionate decision.

Context matters

One of the strongest messages within the new guidance is the importance of context. A behaviour or statement should not automatically be viewed as evidence of radicalisation. DSLs are encouraged to consider what else might explain the behaviour, what has changed for the learner and whether there are other safeguarding, wellbeing or support needs. This is where professional curiosity becomes particularly important.

Practitioners should consider the learner's relationships, experiences, online activity, vulnerabilities, protective factors and wider environment rather than considering a single behaviour in isolation.

The approach supports better safeguarding decisions while reducing the risk of assumptions or inappropriate referrals.

SEND and neurodivergence

The new checklists also contain specific considerations for learners with special educational or neurodivergent needs.

Practitioners are encouraged to consider communication and processing differences, whether behaviour is new or longstanding, existing SEND assessments and support plans, social isolation, peer relationships and online influence.

Crucially, the guidance warns against assuming that SEND or neurodivergence either explains a safeguarding concern or automatically increases the risk of radicalisation.

Instead, concerns should be considered within the learner's full safeguarding picture. This is an important principle for inclusive and proportionate safeguarding practice.

Notice, check, share

The education guidance also sits alongside the Home Office's Notice, check, share guidance, published on 28 August 2026 for professionals working across sectors subject to the Prevent duty.

The principle is straightforward:

Notice something that causes concern.
Check the concern, including discussing it through appropriate safeguarding arrangements and gathering relevant contextual information.
Share where a Prevent referral is appropriate, using the established referral process.

The purpose of checking is not to investigate or prove that radicalisation is taking place. It is about gathering sufficient information to make an informed safeguarding decision and ensuring concerns are responded to appropriately.

What should education providers do now?

The publication of new guidance provides a useful opportunity for schools, colleges, further education providers and other education settings to review their current Prevent arrangements.

Providers should consider:

whether DSLs and deputies are familiar with the new guidance and checklists
whether Prevent training reflects current terminology and referral processes
whether staff understand what they should notice and how concerns should be escalated
whether Prevent concerns are considered within the wider safeguarding picture
whether recording demonstrates the rationale behind decisions
whether Prevent risk assessments remain current and contextualised to the organisation
whether policies and procedures accurately reflect current national and local referral arrangements
whether staff understand the importance of online influences and emerging risks
whether SEND and neurodivergence are appropriately considered within Prevent decision-making
whether staff know when and how to seek advice.

Simply having a Prevent policy or completing annual training does not, on its own, demonstrate effective practice.

Organisations need to be able to show that staff understand their responsibilities, DSLs can make informed and proportionate safeguarding decisions, risks are understood within the organisation's own context and concerns are appropriately recorded, escalated and reviewed.

Prevent is safeguarding

Perhaps the most important message is that Prevent should not operate as a separate safeguarding system.

Concerns about radicalisation may sit alongside exploitation, online harm, social isolation, mental health or wellbeing concerns, family difficulties, peer influence and other risks/susceptibilities.

Effective practice therefore requires the same principles we expect across safeguarding: professional curiosity, good information sharing, appropriate challenge, contextual understanding, clear recording and proportionate decision-making.

The new guidance gives DSLs some useful practical tools to support that process.

For organisations subject to the Prevent duty, this is a good time to ask:

Does our Prevent practice go beyond having a policy and can we demonstrate that it works in practice?

RLB Safeguarding supports organisations with Prevent training, safeguarding audits, Prevent risk assessments, policy development and strategic safeguarding consultancy.