Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Prevent training programme in schools; what benchmarks her Department uses to assess and train staff who provide Prevent training; and what representations she has received from schools on that training.

The statutory Prevent duty guidance refers to the importance of training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. Individual schools and childcare providers are best placed to assess their training needs in the light of their assessment of the risk. Ofsted assess schools’ effectiveness in keeping children and learners safe from the dangers of radicalisation and extremism and will consider evidence that there is a clear approach to implementing the Prevent duty.

To help raise awareness of Prevent and issues around radicalisation amongst front line staff, the Home Office is continuing to roll out freely available Workshops to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). There are a number of professionals, particularly in safeguarding roles (many of whom work within local authorities and the police), who are accredited WRAP facilitators. There has been a significant increase in the number of WRAP training sessions delivered since the end of 2014. The greatest volume of WRAP training has taken place in schools with a significant increase in numbers of staff trained. Over 32,000 staff within schools were WRAP trained in 2015.

The Department has received a number of representations from schools about the availability of WRAP training, and we are working with Home Office and other partners to ensure that schools have access to the training they need.

Jointly with Home Office, the Department has also launched a new website, called Educate Against Hate, which brings together the best advice, support and resources available for parents, teachers and school leaders who want to learn how to protect young people from extremism and radicalisation. The website also includes references to Prevent training. http://www.educateagainsthate.com/