Enacting the Prevent Duty in Primary Schools

This chapter examines the enactment of the Prevent Duty in primary schools since its introduction in July 2015, with a focus on its broad implementation, the raising of Prevent-related concerns, and the embedding of Prevent into fundamental British values (FBVs). Our findings illustrate how this policy enactment responds to a context determined by the idiosyncrasies of the primary school setting, of the wider community, and of the political and strategic environment. We find that primary school educators display a positive acceptance of the Prevent Duty, largely motivated by its incorporation in a wider professional culture of safeguarding and that, with rare exceptions, they are supportive of embedding Prevent in the teaching of FBVs.