Case study a
A colleague, Julie, comes to you and tells you that a member of the teaching staff Alan has been meeting one particularly vulnerable student after college in a classroom that is out of the way.
This student does not tend to mix with other students and waits around for the member of staff outside the classroom.
They meet on an almost daily basis. The student then often walks out of college with Alan. They were seen at an unofficial far right demonstration by a couple of students who then felt very worried and reported this to their tutor. The demonstration later became very violent although the two witnesses were not present when it became violent.
One afternoon just as Alan and the student were leaving the classroom Julie went in to find some books she had left in the room. Julie saw Alan and the student carrying a pile of leaflets with the logo of a far right group which had a race hate slogan in large letters clearly in view.
Activity
What would you do in this situation? Make a note of your thoughts in your notepad before clicking on the link to view our suggestions.
You should tell Julie, who has reported the incident, that you will have to take this issue to the Safeguarding officer.
You would then report the incident to the Safeguarding officer.
The Safeguarding officer should assess the situation with the human resources manager and if they feel that there is a risk of radicalisation, they should seek advice/guidance from their local Prevent coordinator or the local Prevent team.
Individuals or their parents' or guardians if under 18 do need to give consent to be referred to Channel but not for referral to the local Prevent team or coordinator.
If someone refuses to go through the Channel process or is not judged to need to go through the Channel process the organisation will need to decide whether additional support may be needed, often with partner organisations.