Regional Prevent education co-ordinators
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-19)

How regional Prevent education co-ordinators (RPECs) can help education providers with the Prevent duty.

How regional Prevent education co-ordinators can help providers

The Department for Education (DfE) regional Prevent co-ordinators support and improve Prevent delivery in each region of England. Their role includes implementing Prevent duty (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance) responsibilities across schools, further education (FE) and higher education (HE) settings, as well as any other Department for Education interests in the region.

RPECs responsibilities include:

helping education providers improve their Prevent delivery, including where monitoring bodies have identified concerns

supporting education providers with complex radicalisation or terrorism cases involving children, staff, young people or learners

engaging with education providers and police following incidents or terrorism-related incidents

virtual training and good practice webinars for education providers

risk-based training with a regional focus

providing regional communications and updates via newsletters (https://signup.es-mail.co.uk/Signup/939aa7a7a3f0c5a3524fdd2bf091a2b8)

co-ordinating activity across regional partners, including the police and local authorities, on the delivery of Prevent within their region

Prevent regions

DfE regional Prevent education co-ordinators (RPECs) support and improve Prevent delivery in each region of England. These regions are:
- North-West (including Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, Isle of Man, Lancashire, Merseyside)
- North-East (including West Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham, Humberside, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire)
- West Midlands (including West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia)
- East Midlands (including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire)
- South-East (including Thames Valley, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex)
- South-West (including Avon and Somerset, Devon & Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire)
- East-of-England (including Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk)
- London
Virtual training sessions

The RPECs offer large, virtual training sessions that are available to anyone working within an education setting in England. They focus on the implementation of Prevent and are designed primarily for those in dedicated safeguarding or Prevent roles.

Prevent in education: training for early years foundation stage staff

This training package has been designed by DfE for staff within the early years foundation stage to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty.

Prevent in education: training for independent schools

This training package has been designed by DfE for designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) at independent schools to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty.

Prevent in education: training for DSLs

This training package has been designed by DfE for designated safeguarding leads to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty.

Prevent in education: training for governors and trustees in schools

This training package has been designed by DfE for school governors to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty.

Regional newsletters and communications

RPECs regularly share regional updates through their newsletters (https://signup.es-mail.co.uk/Signup/939aa7a7a3f0c5a3524fdd2bf091a2b8). Newsletters include information on:

regional trends and risk updates

new training, guidance and resources

updates or changes to the implementation of Prevent

relevant news, blogs or other content

Further support with the implementation of Prevent in education

Additional support and advice to help implement your Prevent responsibilities includes:

e-learning courses on Prevent (https://www.support-people-susceptible-to-radicalisation.service.gov.uk/) from the Home Office

safeguarding learners susceptible to radicalisation guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-prevent-duty-safeguarding-learners-vulnerable-to-radicalisation/managing-risk-of-radicalisation-in-your-education-setting)

the Department for Education’s Educate Against Hate website (https://www.educateagainsthate.com/)

Training and support materials (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-prevent-duty-in-higher-education-he-training-and-guidance-for-practitioners) for implementing Prevent in higher education (HE)

Contacting your co-ordinator

Use the co-ordinator contact form (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=yXfS-grGoU2187O4s0qC-Qovq5-NtvxCgNLhSQJKrblURVVLMEFKWTQ5WTBIWURQVVkwNE5VSE80TC4u) to:
- learn more about training available in your region
- sign-up to regional newsletters
- ask for help with a complex radicalisation case
- get help with finding a Prevent advocate to speak in a higher education setting
- learn more about understanding the local risk in your area
- find out if a regional good practice forum is available in your area
Reporting concerns

Concerns about individuals

If you have concerns that an individual is susceptible to being drawn into terrorism and would like advice and support, follow the guidance on making a Prevent referral (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-a-referral-to-prevent).

Tell the police immediately, by calling 999, if you think a child, young person or adult learner:
- is about to put themselves or others in immediate danger
- appears to be involved in planning to carry out a criminal offence
Concerns about educational providers

If you have a concern about extremism within an education provider, including allegations against staff or adverse external influences on a provider, use the reporting extremism form (https://report-extremism.education.gov.uk/).

If you are a HE provider and have experienced a ‘Prevent-related’ incident, you may need to report it to the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS have published guidance on Prevent-related serious incidents (https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/29ebc57e-1987-4120-b329-a10ba826a9ac/prevent-duty-serious-incident-guidance_update-dec-2021.pdf).

If you are a new HE, FE or independent training provider, and would like access to regional good practice forums, please use the RPEC contact form (https://signup.es-mail.co.uk/Signup/939aa7a7a3f0c5a3524fdd2bf091a2b8).