School referrals to Prevent hit a 'dead end', warns commissioner

Too many schools hit “dead ends” after making referrals to the Prevent anti-terrorism programme - so the law and guidance in this area must be improved, the children’s commissioner has warned.

A new report from Dame Rachel de Souza sets out recommendations for the Department for Education, after data showed a rise in referrals to Prevent and that most referrals from schools result in no action.

Drawing on Home Office data, the report shows that there has been a “substantial rise” in referrals of children to Prevent, from under 3,000 a year in 2016 to more than 4,700 in 2025. Children account for 54 per cent of the total referrals.

No action taken after Prevent referrals

Prevent, an early intervention programme, is a key part of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy.

Education providers accounted for 60 per cent of referrals to Prevent between April 2024 and March 2025, and most were returned back to schools with no action taken.

The children’s commissioner warns that there are swathes of children that “professionals are greatly concerned about” but that, in seeking support through Prevent, staff are often met with “closed doors and dead ends”.

Her report says that almost two-thirds of school referrals are returned to education providers, with 93 per cent never reaching a panel or moving forward.

“This highlights that there is a group of children which professionals are greatly concerned about, and seeking support for, but are finding closed doors and dead ends,” Dame Rachel says.

In 2023, Tes revealed that many safeguarding referrals from schools to children’s social care resulted in no action being taken, prompting fears over pupil safety.

After education providers, the largest share of referrals to Prevent came from the police (20 per cent) and local authorities (11 per cent).

Among the children referred, 71 per cent had either “no ideology identified”, “no ideology but other susceptibility to radicalisation” or multiple ideologies without a dominant one.

Fears about radicalisation

Dame Rachel shares her “deep concern” about young people being radicalised in an “online world that policymakers know little about”.

Among her recommendations, the commissioner says that the DfE should amend the Children Act to outline how harm conducted outside a child’s home is best tackled.

Meanwhile, the DfE’s Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance should be updated to underline that any risk of committing violence to others “should be a reason for a safeguarding referral”, Dame Rachel advises.

The children’s commissioner also calls for the government to issue joint DfE and Home Office statutory guidance on children who pose risks to their peers.

“This should require that all children where there is a concern that they might commit violence or other forms of harm - because they are violence-fixated, drawn into terrorism or because of concerns about criminality - are referred to the multi-agency child-protection team in the child’s local area,” she says.

Call for national database

Dame Rachel also calls for the creation of a national database of evidence-based interventions for children at risk of causing harm, including for those fixated on violence but who do not have an ideology.

“Simply returning children to services that made the referral, without a clear understanding of what is driving their behaviour or who will be responsible for meeting their needs, risks missing opportunities to provide the right support children desperately need,” she says.

A government spokesperson said the commissioner’s report was being reviewed alongside work in response to the Southport inquiry, adding: “We are committed to ensuring all children are safe from radicalisation, and Prevent plays a crucial role in this, moving more than 6,000 people away from violent ideologies since 2015.

“Every Prevent referral is assessed thoroughly by experts.

“If it’s determined a person is not at risk of being drawn into terrorism, it is right they are supported by other, more appropriate services.”