Read more about this story in The Guardian.
New training materials obtained by Rights & Security International (RSI) show what we believe is an underinformed and stereotype-driven approach amongst Ofsted officials towards the referral of autistic people to the Prevent and Channel counter-terrorism programmes.
A series of 2023 and 2024 training materials for Ofsted inspectors show that Ofsted believes that autistic people are susceptible to becoming terrorists or extremists because of their ‘special interests’ – a claim RSI regards as not based on evidence and likely reflecting stereotypes.
Prevent is the UK government’s flagship programme for stopping people from being drawn into terrorism, and has long been the subject of critiques from civil liberties and community groups for alleged discrimination and other violations of human rights. Channel is a more intensive follow-on programme from Prevent and has faced similar critiques.
One of the Ofsted trainings on Prevent indicates that the trainer should tell school inspectors: ‘Children and young people with Autism are at increased risk of being susceptible to extremism. This is because they are more likely to develop special interests.’ The training does not explain this assertion, and goes on to claim: ‘[C]hildren with autism are more likely to experience social isolation and so use the internet to find friends. They trust the information they read and the “friends” that they find online and so can be drawn into extremism.’
RSI is concerned that such statements effectively draw a target on autistic children when it comes to counter-terrorism policing, based on assumptions and stereotypes rather than any professional expertise in autism or consultations with autistic people.
For more information, see the below documents:
- ‘The Prevent Duty in Further Education and Skills Providers’ (2024)
- ‘Radicalisation and extremism’ (2024)
- Captions to training (2023)
- Captions to training (2024)
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