Prevent duty training records

What the Prevent duty is, and who it applies to

The Prevent duty is in section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015: "A specified authority must, in the exercise of its functions, have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism." The specified authorities are listed in Schedule 6 to the Act. They include local authorities, the police, prisons and probation, the NHS, and a wide range of education providers.

The Home Office's statutory guidance, Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales, was issued in September 2023 and came into force on 31 December 2023, replacing the guidance that had applied since July 2015 and the separate further and higher education guidance. Prevent is one of the four strands of CONTEST, the government's counter-terrorism strategy, alongside Pursue, Protect and Prepare, and the guidance has a section for each sector under the duty. It explains "due regard" plainly: authorities "should place an appropriate amount of weight on the need to prevent people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism when they consider all the other factors relevant to how they carry out their usual functions". The duty "does not confer new functions" on anyone.

For education, the guidance lists the specified authorities, including the proprietors of maintained schools, non-maintained special schools, maintained nursery schools, independent schools (including academies and free schools) and alternative provision academies; 16 to 19 academies; the management committees of pupil referral units; registered early years and later years childcare settings; providers of holiday schemes for disabled children; and further and higher education providers meeting the criteria in Schedule 6.

Three points of scope are worth holding on to. The guidance covers England and Wales; Scotland has separate guidance, and in Wales schools read it alongside Keeping learners safe. Organisations that are not specified authorities, such as many charities, youth organisations and out-of-school settings, are not under the duty, but the guidance says it "may also inform best practice" for them. And in schools and colleges in England the duty sits inside safeguarding: Keeping children safe in education 2026 (KCSIE 2026) says it "should be seen as part of schools' and colleges' wider safeguarding obligations".

What the duty asks for in practice

The aim of Prevent, in the guidance's words, is "to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism", and its objectives are to tackle the ideological causes of terrorism, intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation, and enable those already engaged to disengage and rehabilitate. Three words need using carefully. The guidance defines radicalisation as "the process of a person legitimising support for, or use of, terrorist violence" (paragraph 35). KCSIE 2026 defines extremism as "the vocal or active opposition to our fundamental British values", and terrorism by reference to the Terrorism Act 2000. Extremism and terrorism are not the same thing. The guidance asks settings to be alert to non-violent extremism that "can reasonably be linked to terrorism" as well as to violence (paragraph 141), and to apply "one consistent and proportionate threshold" across every ideology (paragraph 34).

For a school, college or nursery, the work is organised under three themes:

• Leadership and partnership. "All education providers should have a designated lead in a senior management role who is responsible for the delivery of Prevent" (paragraph 151). In most schools that is the designated safeguarding lead. Where a Prevent referral is adopted, education providers "must co-operate as reasonably practicable" with local authority-led Channel panels under section 38 of the Act (paragraph 153).
• Capabilities. Training for relevant staff (section 03 below); a risk assessment of how learners or staff may be at risk of being radicalised into terrorism, including online, with an action plan where specific risks are found (paragraph 162); a clear internal route for raising a concern and a policy on making referrals using the Prevent national referral form (paragraphs 161 and 169); and robust information sharing, including transferring information about Channel support within the child protection file when a child moves on (paragraph 171).
• Reducing permissive environments. Measures so that event spaces and IT equipment are not used to spread extremist narratives (paragraph 175), IT policies that refer to the Prevent duty and consider filtering (paragraph 186), and in schools clear protocols for checking and supervising visiting speakers (paragraph 192).

The guidance is equally clear about what the duty does not do. It "does not mean that the Prevent duty should limit discussion of these issues"; education settings "should be spaces in which people can understand and discuss sensitive topics" (paragraph 176). Schools in England meet much of the duty through their curriculum and their requirement to actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. And settings are not required to have a separate Prevent policy (paragraph 163): the considerations can be built into the existing safeguarding policy and risk assessments.

Who needs Prevent training, and how often

The general rule is in paragraph 68: all specified authorities "should demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the risk of radicalisation by ensuring and recording that appropriate staff undertake training, particularly on radicalisation". Paragraph 70 adds that the frequency and type of training "should be determined by an organisational assessment of training needs". The education section then sets expectations by role:

• Relevant staff. Training "that could help them prevent learners from being radicalised into terrorism", delivered "at the earliest opportunity" (paragraph 156), so that they can recognise susceptibility and know what to do, "including the setting's internal Prevent referral arrangements" (paragraph 157).
• Who counts as relevant. "It is for each setting to determine who the appropriate members of staff are and how frequently training should occur", proportionate to local risk and the phase or type of setting. That includes staff who see learners most, those overseeing the duty, and those with specific functions such as managing external speakers and events (paragraph 158).
• The designated safeguarding lead or Prevent lead. "More in-depth training, including on extremist and terrorist ideologies, how to make referrals and how to work with Channel panels", with a recommendation that it is "updated at least every two years" so the lead can update other staff (paragraph 159). KCSIE 2026 says the same from the school side: the DSL and any deputies "should also undertake Prevent awareness training" as part of role training updated at least every two years.
• Governors and trustees. The guidance expects those with governance responsibilities to be fulfilling the duty, and inspection checks it (paragraph 200), so the board's understanding belongs in the plan too.

So how often is Prevent training required? For most staff the guidance sets no fixed interval; the setting decides, on its own assessment of risk, and records the decision. For the lead, the recommendation is at least every two years. Folding a Prevent element into the annual safeguarding update all staff receive under KCSIE is a sensible way to keep it current between courses.

The Home Office's free GOV.UK Prevent duty training covers Prevent awareness, the referral process, Channel and a refresher awareness course. KCSIE 2026 describes the three Home Office e-learning modules: Prevent awareness e-learning "offers an introduction to the Prevent duty", Prevent referrals e-learning supports staff to make referrals "that are robust, informed and with good intention", and Channel awareness e-learning is for staff who may contribute to or sit on a Channel panel, part of the multi-agency programme that supports people who are referred. For further education, the Education and Training Foundation hosts sector-specific training. Educate Against Hate, the Department for Education's site, carries resources for schools and further education, and your local authority safeguarding team or Prevent lead may offer local training. Paragraph 160 asks settings to check that any other training material is "from an authoritative source" and to undertake due diligence before using external providers.

The training record: what it should show

The guidance puts the duty to keep records in its section on monitoring and assurance. Paragraph 88: "each authority should maintain appropriate records to show compliance with the Prevent duty. This should include keeping track of any Prevent training being undertaken by staff." A Prevent training record that does that job shows, for every person in scope:

• name and role, and whether the role is one the setting has assessed as needing Prevent training, and at what level,
• the course or session, who delivered it and whether it was awareness, referral, Channel or refresher training,
• the date completed, and evidence of completion – a completion record from an online course where one is provided, or a signed attendance list for a face-to-face session,
• the date the next update is due under the setting's own assessment, and for the lead the two-year refresh,
• when the training was given relative to starting in post, since the guidance asks for it "at the earliest opportunity".

Two further documents make the record meaningful. The first is the training needs assessment itself, dated and approved by the Prevent lead: which roles need what, and how often. Without it, a record of courses completed cannot show that the right people had the right training. The second is a note of the updates the lead gives staff between courses, which paragraph 159 anticipates: referral statistics, local incidents, new resources. A dated briefing in the staff meeting minutes is enough.

Most schools hold this inside their wider safeguarding training record rather than as a separate list, which is sensible; our guide to safeguarding training records covers how to structure one and how long to keep it. Training records are personal data, so keep them for a defined period and dispose of them on schedule. Data protection law has been amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, whose data protection provisions are now all in force, so check that any ICO guidance you rely on reflects the amended law.

The other records: risk assessment, policy, referrals and inspection

Training is one strand of the evidence. A setting that can show it meets the Prevent duty will usually hold:

• The Prevent risk assessment and any action plan, dated, reviewed and based on an understanding of the local picture shared with partners (paragraph 162). KCSIE 2026 notes that the appropriateness of a school's filtering and monitoring systems is informed in part by this risk assessment.
• The policy wording – the section of the safeguarding or child protection policy that sets out how staff raise a radicalisation concern internally, how it is assessed, and how a referral is made.
• Referral records. Paragraph 88 asks authorities to "consider their record-keeping arrangements for Prevent referrals to ensure they are proportionate and appropriate, while also being mindful of requirements under data protection legislation (for example, the principle of storage limitation)". In a school, a concern and any referral sit in the child protection file with the reasoning, including a decision not to refer. Our Channel panel guide covers what happens after a referral and what the referrer should have written down.
• IT and visiting speaker arrangements – the acceptable use policy's reference to the duty, and the checks made on external speakers and events.
• Governance – the governing body's minutes showing the lead reports on Prevent, alongside the wider safeguarding report.

In England, Ofsted inspects schools and registered childcare settings, including "ensuring that those with governance or oversight responsibilities for settings are fulfilling their statutory duties under the Prevent duty" (paragraph 200). Independent schools may be inspected by Ofsted or the Independent Schools Inspectorate against the Independent School Standards, and in Wales Estyn inspects. The guidance also provides an independent complaints route where Prevent activity falls short (paragraph 91).

None of this needs to be elaborate. The guidance expects compliance to "reflect existing good practice on safeguarding" and says "it is not anticipated that compliance will result in additional burdens on settings" (paragraph 144). The test is whether the records, read together, show that the setting thought about its own risk, trained the right people, and knows what it would do with a concern.

The update that happened in the staff group chat

Ask where the evidence of a setting's Prevent work actually lives and the formal answer is the training record and the risk assessment. The practical answer often includes somewhere else. The DSL shares the local Prevent bulletin in the staff group chat on a Thursday evening with "worth a read before tomorrow". A teaching assistant replies with a question about something a pupil said, and the DSL answers with three helpful sentences. A new member of staff asks, privately, "is this a Prevent thing or just a safeguarding thing?", and the reply is the best piece of training they get all term.

That exchange is exactly what paragraph 159 hopes the lead will do: support other staff and keep them up to date. It is also, when a pupil is involved, the first record of a concern. Held in a consumer app on personal phones, none of it appears in the training record, the child protection file or the governors' report, and the setting could not produce it if asked how staff were kept informed or when a concern was first raised.

The fix is not to stop staff asking questions the way they naturally do. It is to give work conversations somewhere to happen that the setting controls. ComplyChat provides a channel for them, with everyone added told that it is on the record, and a mobile number verified by SMS is an identity on it, so support staff, supply staff and volunteers without a work account can take part. On paid plans, once the organisation's Microsoft 365 tenant is connected, the lasting record files there under its own retention rules. ComplyChat is not a training platform or a safeguarding case-management system, and it does not replace the training record or the child protection file. ComplyChat Free is personal messaging with one private group, direct messages and three calendar months of recent history, with no Microsoft 365 archive.

A question for the next leadership or governors' meeting: beyond the record of courses completed, how would we show that staff were kept up to date on Prevent this year, and where did the questions they asked end up?

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and the Home Office's Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales, especially section 3 on compliance, section 4 on monitoring and assurance, and the education section (paragraphs 141 onwards). For schools and colleges in England, read it with Keeping children safe in education 2026, whose Annex A summarises the Prevent duty and Channel. Educate Against Hate carries the Department for Education's advice and resources. Quotations here are from the 2023 guidance as it stood on GOV.UK in September 2026; check the page for any later update.

This guide is a practical summary for education settings, not legal advice. If you are unsure whether a concern should become a referral, the guidance's own advice is to speak to your DSL, your local authority Prevent lead or the police.

Then do one thing: find your setting's Prevent training needs assessment. If there is not one, write a single page this week listing each role, the training it needs and how often, and have the lead sign and date it. Every training record you hold makes more sense once that page exists.