Prevent: Channel and the Channel Journey

What happens to a referral?

All referrals are carefully assessed by the police and the local authority to see if they are suitable for Channel or may require another intervention. If suitable, the case is discussed with all relevant partners at a Channel panel to decide what support, if any, is needed. Referred individuals are informed and must give consent (or via a parent or guardian if they are children) before an intervention can take place.

How does a Channel panel work?

The Channel panel is chaired by the local authority and works with multi-agency partners to collectively assess the risk to an individual and decide whether an intervention is necessary. If a Channel intervention is required, the panel works with local partners to develop an appropriate tailored support package. The support package is monitored closely and reviewed regularly by the Channel panel.

Who sits on a Channel panel?

The Channel panel is chaired by the local authority and can include a variety of statutory partners such as the police, children’s services, social services, education professionals and mental health care professionals.

What kind of support is offered via Channel?

The type of support available is wide-ranging, and can include help with education or career advice, dealing with mental or emotional health issues, drug/alcohol abuse, online safety training for parents and specialist mentoring from a Channel intervention provider.

A Channel journey

If you've been referred into Prevent, don't worry. This may mean someone is worried that you might be vulnerable to being groomed into extremism. This could be online or in person, by someone you know, by a stranger, or even by what you are reading or watching. You may not feel like this is happening to you, and on some occasions it might not be, but just to make sure we may need to do some checks. Although these checks are being made, remember that your information remains confidential, and it does not mean you are being accused of a criminal offence.

Channel panel

After the checks, if we're still concerned we will refer you to something called a Channel panel. A Channel panel is run by your local council and is a group of people from different services, such as schools, the local council, healthcare and the police. This group meet regularly to explore how best to help people that have been referred just like you. The people at the panel will decide if they can offer any support that could help you and build up your resilience to grooming and radicalisation.

First conversations

If we feel the Channel panel can offer you some extra help, someone called a Channel co-ordinator will get in touch with you or your parent or guardian. This may be the first time you hear about your referral, and that's okay. The Channel co-ordinator will give you information about the ways the Channel panel can help, and will ask for you, or your parent's consent. You can let the Channel co-ordinator know if there is anything you would like the panel to do for you. You don't have to consent, but most people do. It's up to you.

Individual support

If you agree you would like this extra help, we will then have another discussion at the Channel Panel to see the best ways to help you. This might include inviting any service that has been working with you along to it. The Channel co-ordinator will also let the panel know any help and support you have asked for. From all this information, the panel will start to build a plan which would help you in the best way possible. This will be specific to you and your needs.

If you choose to take up the support, it should start pretty quickly. If you are a child or young person, your plan may include:

  • Help with school or college
  • Careers advice
  • A youth worker
  • Opportunities to access activity groups
  • Physical or mental health support
  • Something called an IP.

An IP is an intervention provider. All that means is a specialist mentor who meets with you one to one and can help you explore some of the thoughts and feelings you may have about the world around you.

If you are an adult your support may include:

  • Help with education
  • Skills or employment
  • Money advice
  • Housing help opportunities to access activity groups
  • Physical or mental health support
  • An intervention provider (IP).

Ongoing support

The Channel panel will continue to support you and make sure your plan is working for what you need. The panel will discuss how this is going for you on a regular basis. You will remain open to the panel for as long as you need the support.

Finishing with Channel

There will come a time where you may no longer need our support. You may still want to work with some of the agencies that have been helping you, but the Channel panel will no longer oversee this. Of course, we will tell you when this happens and will make sure you are fully supported going forward.

Six month and 12 month check in

After six and 12 months, we will check in with you to make sure everything is still okay. If you need some more support, we can help. If you don't, your case will remain closed.

A Channel Journey

Referral into Prevent

If you’ve been referred into Prevent, don’t worry. This may mean that someone is worried that you might be vulnerable to being groomed into extremism. This could be online or in person, by someone you know, by a stranger or even by what you are reading or watching. You may not feel like this is happening to you, and on some occasions it might not be, but just to make sure we may need to do some checks. Although checks are being made, remember that your information remains confidential and it does not mean you are being accused of a criminal offense.

Channel Panel

After the checks, if we’re still concerned we will refer you to something called Channel Panel. A Channel Panel is run by your local council and is a group of people from different services such as schools, the local council, healthcare and the police. This group meet regularly to explore how best to help people that have been referred just like you. The people at the panel will decide if they can offer any support that could help you build up your resilience to grooming and radicalisation.

First conversations

If we feel the Channel Panel can offer you some extra help, someone called a Channel Coordinator will get in touch with you or your parent or guardian. This may be the first time you hear about the referral and that’s okay. The Channel Coordinator will give you information about the way the Channel Panel can help and will ask for you or your parents consent. You can let the Channel Coordinator know if there is anything you would like the panel to do for you. You don’t have to consent but most people do. It’s up to you.

Individual support

If you agree you would like this extra help, there would then be another discussion at the Channel Panel to see the best way to help you. This might include inviting any other service that has been working with you along to it. The Channel Coordinator will also let the panel know about any help and support that you have asked for. From all of this information, the panel will start to build a plan which would help you in the best way possible. This will be specific to you and your needs.

Individual support for a child or young person

If you choose to take up the support, it should start pretty quickly. If you are a child or young person your plan may include:

  • Help with school or college
  • Careers advice
  • A Youth worker
  • Opportunities to access activity groups
  • Physical or mental health support
  • Something called an IP

An IP is an Intervention Provider. All that means is a specialist mentor who meets with you 1/1 and can help you explore some of the thoughts and feelings that you may have about the world around you.

Individual support for adults

If you are an adult, your plan may include:

  • Help with education, skills or employment
  • Money advice or housing help
  • Opportunities to access activity groups
  • Physical or mental health support

Ongoing support

The Channel Panel will continue to support you and make sure that your plan is working for what you need. The panel will discuss how this is going for you on a regular basis. You will remain open to the panel for as long as you need the support.

Finishing with Channel

There will come a time where you may no longer need our support. This is great. You may still want to work with some of the agencies that have been helping you but the Channel Panel will no longer oversee this. Of course, we will tell you when this happens and will make sure that you are fully supported going forward.

Six and twelve month check in

After 6 and 12 months, we will check in on you to make sure that everything is still ok. If you need some more support, we can help. If you don’t, you will remain closed to us.

Downloadable documents

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