Neurodiversity training for Prevent practitioners
Southport Inquiry · The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · Issued 13 April 2026 · Addressed to: Counter Terrorism Policing
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters should review its neurodiversity training for Prevent practitioners (including, where appropriate, drawing in wider healthcare advice) to ensure that they sufficiently equip practitioners with a proper understanding of:
1. How autism may influence risk in the context of a Prevent referral.
2. The importance of timely referrals to the Clinical Consultancy Service to obtain advice on how neurodiversity, including autism, may affect the risks in any individual case. Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters should ensure that this remains a consistent priority across regions. Counter Terrorism Policing North West should review its own processes in this regard.
Southport Inquiry, The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · 13 Apr 2026 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
How was this evidence gathered?
Response — verbatim from government
●Home Office
The internal strategic policy review of mental ill-health and neurodivergence in Prevent also includes recommended improvements to policy and training. The findings from this review will complement work by CTP in relation to recommendation 34 to build understanding of how autism may influence risk in the context of a Prevent referral and the importance of obtaining advice from the Clinical Consultancy Service (CCS) on such risk. (Government Response to Phase 1 of the Southport Inquiry, CP 1623, 2 July 2026.)
Home Office · 2 Jul 2026 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 2 Jul 2026 · Home Office Government response published 2 July 2026 (CP 1623). The government agreed with this recommendation and addressed it in the response; the named body's delivery is in progress. Source →
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