Delivering the Prevent duty in a proportionate and fair way

Are you concerned that actions taken to comply with the Prevent duty could pose risks to your requirement to give ‘due regard’ to advancing equality, tackling prejudice and fostering good relations, the three aims or the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)? Have you assessed the impact of your Prevent policies, practices and action plan against the requirements of the PSED? Did you know that new guidance explains how you might go about this?

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have published a guide for higher education providers on how to use equality and human rights law in the context of Prevent. Although geared for HE institutions, FE providers will also find this resource useful. It will be particularly relevant for governors, E&D leads, and Prevent leads.

The guide highlights that staff are concerned that actions they take to comply with the Prevent duty could pose risks to the requirement to give ‘due regard’ to advancing equality, tackling prejudice and fostering good relations, the three aims or the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The guide explains that a key way in which providers can show ‘due regard’ would be to assess the impact of their Prevent policies, practices and action plan against the requirements of the PSED, including the potential or actual impact on staff and students who share protected characteristics. The guide then shows how you might go about this via a series of steps, questions to ask and examples to consider.

You can download the guide here