Prevent Awareness Training for Venue Hire Staff - 2025

You are invited to attend the Prevent Awareness Training for Venue Hire Staff in light of the requirement to ‘reduce permissive environments’ under the revised Prevent Duty Guidance.

Prevent is at the heart of safeguarding children and adults. It aims to provide early intervention to protect and divert people away from being drawn into terrorist activity.  One way that Prevent seeks to tackle the ideological causes of terrorism is by limiting exposure to radicalising narratives, both online and offline, and create an environment where radicalising ideologies are challenged and are not permitted to flourish. All venues run by authorities covered by the Prevent Duty are expected to have measures in place to ensure their facilities are not exploited by radicalisers. This includes making proportionate checks on anyone who wishes to hire one of our venues, or any speakers we are inviting to events, to ensure they are not doing so in support of any extremist ideology.
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This session is aimed at staff who are responsible for taking bookings for venues/rooms or who regularly book speakers and works alongside the guidance issued within your local area and your own venue hire policy. This includes staff from:

• Local Authorities
• Town & Parish Councils
• Voluntary / Community Sector organisations
• Educational establishments

This session is open to staff from across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk County Council areas.

Please note that this is open to the community sector but is not open to staff from private companies.
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The session will cover:

• Background – An overview of CONTEST, The Prevent Duty, requirements for relevant authorities under the ‘Reducing Permissive Environments’ part of the Duty and why it is important for your organisation.
• Ask, Check, Decide – They key principles to follow when hiring your venue / arranging a speaker, questions to ask and the information to gather before making a decision.

This will be an interactive session with a chance to practice carrying out due diligence checks with some scenario exercises. To make the most of this session you will need to be signed into a device that enables you to make internet searches at the same time as joining the MS Teams session. You may also find it helpful to have a pen and notebook handy.
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There are sessions available on:

• Monday 24^th March  ||  15:00-16:00
• Friday 25^th April         ||  11:00-12:00
• Tuesday 20^th May      ||  10:00-11:00

All sessions are held via MS Teams and calendar invite with the joining link will be sent to you upon registration.

You can register onto one of the sessions via our registration form. QR code:

You can also use this form to tell us about any accessibility needs ahead of the session.

If you have any questions, please contact prevent@hertfordshire.gov.uk