England’s largest council may be forced to cut staff who support schools with the anti-terrorism Prevent programme after the government slashed funding.
Schools and other public bodies have a legal duty to help reduce the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. They make referrals to Prevent about suspected radicalisation.
Prevent education officers are responsible for making schools aware of their safeguarding duties, provide support, guidance and training and flag changing risks with leaders.
But Reform-run Kent County Council has written to schools warning that “due to a reduction in the national Prevent budget, local funding has been reduced.
“As a result, the Kent and Medway Prevent team may lose our two Prevent education officer posts.”
Fall in councils getting Prevent funding
Council areas deemed to have a higher relative risk from radicalisation are given government funding to help support public bodies with their duties.
In 2024-25, the Home Office allocated dedicated Prevent funds worth more than £8.3mil to the 30 “highest threat” local authorities. That year, Kent received around quarter-of-a-million pounds.
The number of authorities receiving Prevent funding was reduced to 28 in 2025-26,a parliamentary question revealed in November. The Home Office has confirmed it has reduced this again for 2026-27, to 27.
Kent Prevent funding cut by 25%
A spokesperson for Kent County Council said its funding had been reduced by 25 per cent this year. It did not confirm the total now received, but said it would allow Kent and Medway authorities “to continue to meet their statutory responsibilities in line with the Prevent duty”.
Fiyaz Mughal, a safeguarding expert and founder of Faith Matters, said the loss of education officers at a time “when online extremism and hate is pretty evident and growing is enormous”.
He added: “Schools need support, guidance and regular updates from such officers and we know that the nature of extremism is fast changing and it is mutating online.
“Not having a central officer who keeps abreast of things in this area means that some schools may not be fully up to date or equipped around recognising new groups, patterns of behaviour or narratives and this is troubling.”
Increasing referrals to Prevent
A Schools Week investigation last year found that schools are increasingly referring children to Prevent, but fewer than one in 10 youngsters got support through the scheme.
In the year to April 2024, two in five school referrals were found to involve a vulnerable child, but one deemed not to be driven by a terrorist ideology.
That meant more than 1,000 cases from schools were classed as “vulnerability present but no ideology or CT [counter-terrorism] risk” – an increase of 140 per cent since before Covid.
It was the highest of any Prevent category.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government is committed to tackling radicalisation and has significantly strengthened Prevent to ensure it can stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
“Prevent is a legal duty for all local authorities and the Home Office provides additional funding to 27 areas with the highest risk to go above and beyond, but it is for the local authority to determine how they will use that additional funding.
“All local authorities have access to a central project fund to address local radicalisation risks which they can also bid into.”
