Referrals to the government’s anti-terrorism scheme for young people will be “routinely” escalated so more vulnerable youngsters get support.
A rapid learning review of the Prevent programme comes after teenager Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls in Southport last summer, had been referred to the programme three times.
FE Week revealed last year that Prevent referrals in FE were at a record high – but fewer cases were getting escalated through the scheme.
Among the14 recommendations for improvements, reviewers said the programme should consider “routinely referring” reports involving children and those with “complex needs” to “channel panels”.
These multi-agency panels involve the local authority, counter-terrorism police, social services, and education and mental health professionals.
They assess the most serious referrals and set up support to help young people “move away from harmful activities and ideas”.
Prevent closed all Rudakubana referrals before they reached a channel panel.
In a statement to parliament on Wednesday, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said the teenager’s case was closed “prematurely”, and that he should have been managed through a channel panel.
Rudakubana was jailed last month for a minimum of 52 years after pleading guilty to three charges of murder.
Jarvis said the government had accepted the review’s findings, and “rapid action” had been taken to implement its recommendations.
Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times between December 2019 and April 2021, when he was 13 and 14. All the referrals were made by staff at his schools.
The first referral reported a teacher’s concerns about Rudakubana’s behaviour in school, internet searches on mass shootings, and his previous exclusion for carrying a knife.
During an art lesson, the teacher reported Rudakubana had questioned why he was able to draw images of guns but not search them on the internet. He then asked: “Can we have a picture of a severed head then?”
On the same day, he was overheard talking to a pupil about watching videos of people hurting themselves. He also made a graphic comment about a drill bit breaking and killing someone.
Just a few days later, he returned to his previous school and attacked another pupil with a hockey stick. He was arrested.
Prevent officers asked Rudakubana about his search history, and the boy admitted to looking up shootings. Officials decided that he was not a terrorist risk and, while “extremely vulnerable”, support from other agencies was already in place.
The case was closed on Prevent systems on January 31. A second referral was made a day later.
The designated safeguarding lead at Rudakubana’s school reported concerns from the boy’s previous school, where a pupil had flagged his social media posts about Libya and its then ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
The case was closed two weeks later.
A third referral was made by a teacher in April. During an ICT lesson, Rudakubana had been searching the internet for “London bomb” and, according to the report, seemed to have a “passionate interest” in the Israel/Palestine conflict, MI5 and the IRA.
Again, officials decided that Rudakubana was not a terrorist threat. “[Rudakubana] is generally interested in history and current affairs,” they reported. “There are no extreme views, [and he] shows a developing level of critical thinking regarding different viewpoints.”
The case was closed.
Three years later, Rudakubana killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, at a Southport dance class.
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