The treatment of autistic people who are referred to the government’s deradicalisation scheme could be in breach of equality laws, a human rights charity has claimed. The home secretary has been warned that Prevent and Channel, the multi-agency follow-on programme, which seek to identify people at risk of extremism, are overreporting neurodivergent people.
In a pre-action letter to the Home Office, Rights & Security International (RSI) said it was “deeply concerned about a potential ongoing failure to collect and analyse data on the protected characteristics of those referred to Prevent and that this constitutes an ongoing failure to comply with their public sector equality duty”.But maybe the prevalence of them on the list simply means that the public perception of autistic people as harmless wierdoes obsessed with dinosaurs or rail timetables - thanks to film & tv - is wrong?
RSI has argued that the failure to collect adequate data to support equality monitoring constitutes a breach of the home secretary and police’s public sector equality duty. The duty is the requirement to have “due regard” to the equality objectives in section 149 of the Equality Act, which include the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share protected characteristics and those who do not.
Pretty difficult to do when they are doing this sort of thing:
Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has voiced his concerns that a “staggeringly high” number of autistic people are referred to Prevent. He has cited terrorism cases in which the defendants were autistic, including 17-year-old Lloyd Gunton, who declared himself an Islamic State soldier and was sentenced to life in prison for preparing a vehicle and knife attack in Cardiff in 2018.
Should someone who does this not be referred to Prevent then? Just because they have, or may later get, a diagnosis?
A Home Office spokesperson said the government was reviewing the Prevent programme in light of concerns over neurodivergence. “We understand that those referred to Prevent often present with a range of vulnerabilities, and we take our safeguarding duties very seriously.
I think you are a bit confused about who exactly are the truly vulnerable here…
can anyone explain this to my 10 year old mind?
ReplyDeletethe article is too long to post.
it is found here-
https://badlands.substack.com/p/why-i-just-dont-trust-elon-musk
Redacted
totally unrelated:
ReplyDeletecan anyone explain this to a 10 year old (me):
Why I Just Don't Trust Elon Musk
Will his New Political Party Be Called 'Technocracy Inc 2.0'?
MATTHEW EHRET
JUN 11, 2025
https://badlands.substack.com/p/why-i-just-dont-trust-elon-musk
Redacted
Much of the blame must lie at the feet of the progressive educators. For centuries, our education system, backed up by churches and other religious establishments, emphasised manners, altruism and a broadly Christian code of behaviour in clearly-stated codes of conduct.
ReplyDeleteThe progressives, rejecting the idea that young children are feral by instinct and need to be ‘civilised’, abandoned this moral education; some even went so far as to criticise it for being ‘cultural imperialism’ - a good example being an article declaring that teachers should avoid at all costs 'imposing their own middle-class values' on pupils - values such as the idea that helping yourself to other people's property is always wrong - and that schools should henceforth monitor lessons to prevent it happening.
Without this common grounding, children look to home - and the failures on that front are horribly apparent - and to those around them for guidance and templates for behaviour, which makes it difficult for those who lack the social skills to read the cues. One autistic child told me it feels ‘as if everyone else has an instruction book and I’m having to make it up as I go along’.
Neurodiverse youngsters, more than any others, need a clear set of rules and values explained to them at an early stage and are often highly computer-literate. Place them in what is effectively a moral vacuum and it is highly likely they will be attracted to online conspiracy theories or extremist groups - they who else is offering them detailed explanations for what is going on around them? - and thence to extremism.
(Written from the perspective of many years of experience working with neurodivergent high achievers in a professional and personal context.)
Disability isn't a valid excuse to turn a blind eye or ignoring wrongdoing. Sure the approach may be different, but Neurodivergent people still need informing when they break laws so they can avoid that behaviour in future.
ReplyDeleteCertainly if neurodivergent people are being overreported to the Police, then the system is failing; failing to educate the neurodivergent that their behaviour is unacceptable and the reasons why.
Of course it's harder to argue for specious legislation and justify it. If that's the case, then maybe the legislation is bad, not the neurodivergent person.