Children referred to Prevent need stronger safeguarding response, Children’s Commissioner warns

A new report from the Children’s Commissioner for England has raised significant concerns about what happens to children referred to the Prevent programme, particularly those displaying a fixation with violence but without an identifiable extremist ideology.

Children referred to the Prevent programme examines the experiences of children referred because professionals are concerned about radicalisation, extreme violence or risks of harm.

The report identifies a growing group of children whose behaviours cause significant concern but who may not meet the criteria for intervention through Prevent. The Children’s Commissioner warns that too many of these children are subsequently returned to the services that originally referred them, without receiving additional support. The findings raise important questions about how safeguarding partnerships identify, understand and respond to children whose needs and risks do not fit neatly within existing service pathways.

_{A significant increase in children referred to Prevent}

The number of Prevent referrals involving children has increased substantially, from 2,918 in 2016–17 to 4,715 in 2024–25. Children accounted for more than half of all Prevent referrals in 2024–25. However, the nature of these referrals is particularly significant. Seven in ten referrals involving children had no specific extremist ideology identified. This group includes children displaying a fascination with extreme violence or mass-casualty attacks and those whose behaviour may be associated with wider vulnerabilities, exploitation, trauma, harmful online content or unmet needs.

Professionals interviewed for the report described concerns about children talking repeatedly about weapons, idolising attackers, viewing or sharing extreme violent material and becoming involved in harmful online communities. The report therefore challenges services to look beyond traditional understandings of radicalisation and consider the wider circumstances, needs and risks surrounding individual children.

_{Most children do not progress through Prevent}

Of the 4,715 Prevent referrals involving children in 2024–25, 79% were closed without progressing through the Prevent programme.

Education settings are particularly important in identifying concerns. Almost three in five referrals involving children came from education. Yet the Children's Commissioner's analysis found that at least 65% of referrals made by schools and colleges were returned to education settings when the Prevent referral was closed. Of those returned, 93% had not been discussed at a panel or progressed through the programme. This leaves schools and other professionals facing a difficult question: if Prevent is not the appropriate response, where should they go next?

_{Children falling between services}

The report highlights a wider challenge familiar across children's services: children whose combination of needs, vulnerabilities and risks does not fit comfortably within the remit or threshold of any one service. A child may be experiencing trauma, neurodevelopmental needs, mental health difficulties, exploitation or instability alongside concerning online activity or a growing fascination with violence.

The Commissioner argues that deciding a child does not require a Prevent intervention should not bring professional enquiry to an end. Instead, it should lead to a fuller understanding of what is happening for that child, what risks they may pose to themselves or others and what support or intervention is required.

Repeated referrals are another warning sign. Between April 2016 and March 2025, more than 1,100 children were referred to Prevent at least twice. Where professionals continue to raise concerns, repeated referrals should prompt curiosity about whether underlying needs and risks have been sufficiently understood and addressed.

_{The importance of understanding the whole child}

The report also raises questions about how effectively information about children's wider needs is brought together.

Information about mental health and neurodevelopmental needs was missing from 60% of referrals examined. Where conditions were recorded, autism was identified in 16% of referrals – considerably higher than its estimated prevalence across the school-age population. This does not imply a causal relationship between autism and radicalisation or violence. It does, however, reinforce the importance of understanding children's communication, development, vulnerabilities and individual circumstances when assessing concerning behaviour.

For the children and families workforce, this highlights the importance of whole-child assessment, professional curiosity, effective information sharing and multi-agency analysis of risk and need.

_{A stronger multi-agency safeguarding response}

The Children's Commissioner is calling for a significant change in the way these concerns are managed. Her central recommendation is that children who may pose a risk of violence or other harm – whether because of violence fixation, concerns about terrorism or criminality – should be referred through a local multi-agency safeguarding route, with Counter Terrorism Policing involved where appropriate. From there, children could be directed towards Prevent or another safeguarding or specialist intervention according to their individual circumstances.

The Commissioner is also calling for clearer statutory guidance, improved data sharing and tracking, stronger online protections and better support for children with complex needs who may currently fall between services.

_{What does this mean for the children and families workforce?}

The findings have implications well beyond professionals working directly with Prevent. Schools, children's social care, health services, police, youth services and other partners may all encounter children displaying behaviours that are difficult to understand and potentially concerning. An effective response requires professionals to consider the child's behaviour alongside their wider lived experience, relationships, vulnerabilities, online experiences and support needs. It also requires clarity about responsibility. A referral being closed by one service cannot mean that concern itself has disappeared. Where significant concerns remain, there needs to be a clear route for bringing agencies together, sharing information, assessing risk and deciding who will act.

As local areas develop Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams and strengthen Local Child Protection Partnerships through the Families First reforms, this report provides a timely reminder of the importance of genuinely integrated safeguarding arrangements around children whose needs and risks cross traditional professional and organisational boundaries. The central message is an important one: a referral should begin the process of understanding what is happening for a child – not mark the end of professional responsibility when one particular pathway is not appropriate.