make sure that staff and students’ complaints about actions taken under the Prevent duty are dealt with in a timely and effective manner, that lessons are learned across the institution and the Prevent action plan is amended where appropriate. Guidelines for Prevent leads As a Prevent lead, you are responsible for identifying risks relevant to the Prevent duty and for creating a plan setting out the actions your institution will take to mitigate against these risks. The guidelines below should help you ensure that you assess the impact of your proposed actions in a robust and proportionate way. However, we encourage you to consult with equality and diversity staff who might have already put systems in place to help you conduct a thorough assessment. They could also act as a ‘critical friend’ to provide independent scrutiny on the work you do to comply with equality and human rights law in the context of the Prevent duty. Assessing the potential impact of your Prevent action plan We suggest that you assess your proposed Prevent action plan for its impact on equality and good relations at the same time as assessing its impact on human rights. We suggest that you consider the overall impact of your action plan, looking at the cumulative impact of your proposed actions rather than their individual impact in isolation. The questions below may help you to do this: Could some of your proposed actions lead to unlawful conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010? your plan affect how people with particular protected characteristics access the courses your institution delivers or how they participate in activities on university premises? Could it affect their academic success? Could it affect how comfortable students feel studying certain
identify potential adjustments you could make to your plan or appropriate and proportionate actions your institution could take to avoid undermining equality, human rights and good relations when the plan is implemented. You may need to spend time and resources to persuade staff, students and their representatives to engage with this process. Being clear about why you want to engage with them and how you will take on board their comments and suggestions should help you. Example A proposed Prevent action plan requires students who want to organise any on university premises to provide the Events Team/Campus Coordinator with relevant information (such as date, agenda and proposed speakers) well in advance of the event taking place. When external speakers are invited, students are also expected to provide information about them by completing a freedom of speech form. Under the proposed plan the Events Team/ Campus Coordinator is responsible for reviewing the information provided through freedom of speech forms and for assessing whether an event is likely to pose a risk relevant to the Prevent duty. If so, the Events Team/Campus Coordinator is required to liaise with the Prevent lead so he/she can decide on the best course of action. discussing the proposed Prevent action plan with staff and students (including students’ union and society representatives), the Prevent lead amends it to include additional actions which should be taken where potential equality and human rights issues are identified in relation to a planned event. The actions include: The Prevent lead holds an Event Review Meeting with the following stakeholders: Equality and Diversity Manager; Events Team/Campus
HEFCE (2016), ‘’ [accessed: 24 January 2017] (2016), ‘’ [accessed: 24 January 2017] HM Government (2015), ‘’ [accessed: 24 January 2017] HM Government (2015), ‘ [accessed: 24 January 2017] HM Government (2015), ‘’. Available at: [accessed: 24 January 2017] Universities UK (2013), ‘ [accessed: 24 January 2017] Contacts This publication and related equality and rights resources are available from the . For advice, information or guidance on equality, discrimination or human rights issues, please contact the , a free and independent service. Telephone 0808 800 0082 Textphone 0808 800 0084 Hours 09:00 to 19:00 (Monday to Friday) 10:00 to 14:00 (Saturday) Post FREEPOST Equality Advisory Support Service FPN4431 Questions and comments regarding this publication may be addressed to: . The Commission welcomes your feedback. Alternative formats This publication is also available as a Microsoft Word file from the . For information on accessing a Commission publication in an alternative format, please contact: . © 2017 Equality and Human Rights Commission Published February 2017