Safeguarding and prevent

These are some of the things we do to support a safeguarding culture:

• We have a dedicated safeguarding team who are professionally trained.
• We have a safeguarding and prevent policy that we review frequently, ensuring that supports our safeguarding practice.
• All Institute staff undertake safeguarding & prevent training. 
• We train Dyson Technology line managers and mentors on safeguarding & prevent.
• We manage a prevent risk assessment, which we frequently review in light of any national or local risks or threats.

All students have safeguarding and prevent training embedded into their Induction programme and personal and professional development curriculum.

We may occasionally admit student engineers who are under the age of 18 years at the start of their degree apprenticeship. This is likely to be a temporary situation as the students' approach their eighteenth birthday. Under British law (Children Act, 1989), anyone under the age of 18 is considered to be a ‘child.’ We have a legal obligation to safeguard the wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults. ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ and ‘Working Together to Safeguarding Children’ applies to undergraduate engineers who are under 18 years of age.

We have a specific policy to support this ‘Students under 18 and Child Protection policy’.

The Dyson Institute has a statutory duty under Section 26 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, termed “Prevent”, to give due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. 

To the right of this section there are videos which take you through the different elements of the Prevent Duty.

The overall aim of the counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, is to reduce the risk from terrorism to the UK, its citizens and interests overseas, so that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence.

Alongside the other three ‘P’ work strands:

• Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism
• Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks
• Protect: to strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack
• Prepare: to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack

The aim of the Prevent Duty is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent also extends to supporting the rehabilitation and disengagement of those already involved in terrorism.

It sits alongside long-established safeguarding duties on professionals to protect people from a range of other harms. The duty helps to ensure that people who are susceptible to radicalisation are supported as they would be under safeguarding processes.

Prevent is a government initiative intended to safeguard communities against the threat of extremism, radicalisation, and terrorism, and for the promotion of British Values.

The 2023 PREVENT strategy has three objectives:

• tackle the ideological causes of terrorism
• intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation
• enable people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate  

If you are concerned about someone please use the ‘Raise a safeguarding concern’ button or another method above. It is very important for you to share your concerns so that we can support them.

We have a responsibility to actively promote fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We do this throughout the Institutes work.

The Dyson Institute treats the risks posed by radicalisation and extremism as safeguarding concerns, as outlined in the Safeguarding and Prevent Policy.​​​​​​​

You can read the guidance here Prevent duty guidance: England and Wales (2023).

We're committed to ensuring that all students and staff are treated with respect and dignity and our polices uphold these values. We believe that we produce our best work when we feel safe and are comfortable expressing who we truly are. Students and staff undertake training throughout the year to understand the policies and the role that each one of us can play in creating a safe environment for everyone.

• Democracy: a culture built upon freedom and equality, where everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities. 
• Rule of Law: the need for rules to make a happy, safe and secure environment to live and work.
• Mutual respect: understanding that we all don't share the same beliefs and values. Respecting the values, ideas and beliefs of others whilst not imposing our own on others.
• Individual liberty: protection of your rights and the right of others you work with. 

The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR do not prevent the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children safe. Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare and protect the safety of children.

Confidentiality is about protecting sensitively personal information. We may have to share information provided to the safeguarding team in order to prevent someone coming to harm. We will explain this prior to you providing the information so you can make an informed decision. We train all staff to share the information with the safeguarding team if there is a disclosure or report. This information will be shared only on a need to know basis and stored securely.

If you have any questions please speak to the safeguarding team at DIETSafeguarding@dyson.com. 

Hate crimes are those which are targeted at people because of hostility or prejudice towards their disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Such offences can include verbal abuse, physical assault, domestic abuse, harassment, and damage to property.  

Hate crime isn’t just physical abuse or violence, and an incident can have a lasting effect on a person. Abuse, name calling, assault, blackmail, harassment, intimidation, bullying, or exploitation are all forms of hate crime. This includes abusive comments that are made by phone, text or through social media. 

When behaviour is motivated by or demonstrates hostility or prejudice towards one or more of the monitored strands it can be described as a hate incident or hate crime.

Hate crime is an area of special concern because of the reason the offender targets their victim; 'In most crimes it is something the victim has in their possession or control that motivates the offender to commit the crime. With hate crime it is "who" the victim is, or "what" the victim appears to be that motivates the offender to commit the crime.' (Met Police, 2020)

If you are being affected by hate crimes, get in touch with the safeguarding team who are here to help.

Support for gender based violence and sexual misconduct