Before You Deliver — Check With the DSL
Confirm the school has a current Prevent policy and staff have received Prevent training. Your session lands better when it follows — not introduces — the school's existing Prevent work.
What You Can and Cannot Say
✓ You can say
- Prevent covers all extremism types — far-right, Islamist, extreme left, single-issue
- Channel is a voluntary support programme, not prosecution
- ~21% of Prevent referrals in 2024/25 related to far-right concerns; ~10% Islamist; ~34% no clear ideology or mixed/unclear — the largest single group (Home Office, 2024/25)
- The threshold is "reasonable concern" — not certainty, not evidence
- Young people can raise concerns with their DSL
✗ Do not say
- Name individuals or reference specific intelligence
- Make commitments about what Channel will do in a specific case
- Imply any community or ethnicity is inherently more at risk
- Discuss details of any Channel case, even anonymised
- Suggest young people report peers directly to police
"Why Are You Only Talking About Muslims?" — Prepared Response
This will come up. Don't be caught off-guard.
"Good question. In 2024/25, around one in five Prevent referrals related to far-right concerns — neo-Nazi groups, incel ideology, accelerationist movements — while around one in ten were linked to Islamist extremism. The largest single category was cases with no clear ideology or a mixed, unclear or unstable concern. Prevent covers every form of radicalisation. No community is singled out. The common thread is using violence to push an ideology."
Don't move on before the room absorbs the answer. Invite a second challenge if it comes.
Three Misconceptions — Correct Them Clearly
Myth 1: "PREVENT means the police are spying on us"
Channel is voluntary — the person referred knows about it and can decline. Nobody is put on a covert list. The school refers to a panel; the panel decides whether to offer support.
Myth 2: "You can be reported for the wrong political views"
The threshold is specific: vulnerability to being drawn into terrorism — not political opinion or religious belief. Holding an extreme view is not the same as being at risk of committing violence.
Myth 3: "Channel means you'll be arrested"
Around 1,472 individuals were adopted into Channel and received support in 2024/25, out of a record 8,778 referrals (not every referral proceeds to substantive support). The vast majority had no subsequent contact with the criminal justice system. Channel is a support intervention, not a prosecution gateway.
Explaining Channel to Year 10
"Channel is not about arresting people for what they think. It's more like a referral to a counsellor — someone who talks to you about what's going on. Most people who go through Channel never have any contact with the criminal justice system. Think of it like how a social worker might help a young person being drawn into county lines."