Regional CONTEST co-ordinators
How regional counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) co-ordinators can help education providers with the Prevent duty.
Applies to England
The Department for Education (DfE) regional CONTEST co-ordinators support the delivery of the department’s contribution to the UK counter terrorism strategy.
The aim of CONTEST is to reduce the risk from terrorism to the UK, its citizens and interests overseas, so people can live freely and with confidence. It focuses on 4 strands:
- prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism
- pursue: to stop terrorist attacks happening
- protect: to strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack
- prepare: to minimise the impact of a terrorist attack
Co-ordinators will also support work to tackle extremism including certain divisive or intolerant narratives which can reasonably be linked to terrorism.
We have 8 DfE regional CONTEST co-ordinators who cover England and support the entire education sector. As a result, they focus on key threats and risks and have developed strategic relationships with key regional partners to use multi-agency partnership working to deliver key responsibilities.
Their key responsibilities are:
- working on a risk based approach helping education providers improve their Prevent delivery, including where monitoring bodies have identified concerns
- co-ordinating activity across regional partners, including the police and local authorities, on the delivery of Prevent improvement programmes in education
- delivering virtual training and good practice webinars for education providers
- supporting education providers and multi-agency partnerships with complex radicalisation or terrorism cases involving children, staff, young people or learners
- engaging with education providers and police following extremism incidents or terrorism-related issues
- providing regional communications and updates via newsletters where they highlight training opportunities, regional media articles and key policy updates
- sign posting guidance, resources and local support where required on protective security and preparedness
Prevent regions
Regional CONTEST co-ordinators support and improve Prevent delivery in each region of England. These regions are:
- North-West (including Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, Isle of Man, Lancashire, Merseyside)
- North-East (including West Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham, Humberside, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire)
- West Midlands (including West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia)
- East Midlands (including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire)
- South-East (including Thames Valley, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex)
- South-West (including Avon and Somerset, Devon & Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire)
- East-of-England (including Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk)
- London
Virtual training sessions
Regional CONTEST co-ordinators offer large, virtual training sessions that are available to anyone working within an education setting in England. They focus on the implementation of Prevent and are designed primarily for those in dedicated safeguarding or Prevent roles.
Regional newsletters and communications
RPECs regularly share regional updates through their newsletters. Newsletters include information on:
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regional trends and risk updates
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new training, guidance and resources
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updates or changes to the implementation of Prevent
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relevant news, blogs or other content
Further support with the implementation of Prevent in education
Additional support and advice to help implement your Prevent responsibilities includes:
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e-learning courses on Prevent from the Home Office
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safeguarding learners susceptible to radicalisation guidance
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the Department for Education’s Educate Against Hate website
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Training and support materials for implementing Prevent in higher education (HE)
Contacting your co-ordinator
Use the co-ordinator contact form to:
- learn more about training available in your region
- sign-up to regional newsletters
- ask for help with a complex radicalisation case
- get help with finding a Prevent advocate to speak in a higher education setting
- learn more about understanding the local risk in your area
- find out if a regional good practice forum is available in your area
Reporting concerns
Concerns about individuals
If you have concerns that an individual is susceptible to being drawn into terrorism and would like advice and support, follow the guidance on making a Prevent referral.
Tell the police immediately, by calling 999, if you think a child, young person or adult learner:
- is about to put themselves or others in immediate danger
- appears to be involved in planning to carry out a criminal offence
Concerns about educational providers
If you have a concern about extremism within an education provider, including allegations against staff or adverse external influences on a provider, use the reporting extremism form.
If you are a HE provider and have experienced a ‘Prevent-related’ incident, you may need to report it to the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS have published guidance on Prevent-related serious incidents.
If you are a new HE, FE or independent training provider, and would like access to regional good practice forums, please use the regional Prevent contact form.
Updates to this page
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Added link to 'Regional CONTEST co-ordinators: virtual training sessions'.
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Updated 'Prevent in further education (FE): planning' and 'Prevent in FE: tailored training for staff working in the FE sector', as these sessions are for further education providers.
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Updated name of role to 'Regional CONTEST co-ordinator' and updated responsibilities. Added more Prevent duty virtual training sessions for 2026 to 2027.
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The Prevent in education virtual training sessions for early years foundation stage staff will run from 6pm to 7:15pm on Monday 19 January 2026 and Tuesday 16 June 2026.
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Added new dates for virtual training sessions.
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Updated with future training session dates.
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Added new dates for virtual training sessions.
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First published.