Implementing the Prevent Duty in higher education (HE): heads of HE providers
Published 1 April 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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1. The role
As leaders of their institutions, heads of higher education (HE) providers must ensure their provider complies with the statutory Prevent Duty.
The Prevent Duty guidance for higher education tasks Vice-Chancellors explicitly with achieving active engagement with other partners such as the police and regional Prevent co-ordinators. The guidance also expects that students are consulted and engaged on their plans for implementing the Duty.
2. Resources
Leaders are expected to ensure institutions deliver internal partnerships, external partnerships, effective risk assessment and action planning. If institutions fail to comply with this duty formal action could be potentially taken by the Secretary of State.
More widely, compliance with Prevent requires both appropriate policies and procedures to be in place to the meet the expectations of the Prevent duty guidance for higher education and that these procedures are properly followed and applied.
Prevent Duty training materials can help the heads of HE providers understand how to fulfil their role. The leadership challenge training materials explore the expectations of leadership as explained in the statutory guidance and discuss the specific challenges that arise for both governing bodies and senior managers.