Only 5% of the 7,631 people referred to the government’s Prevent counter-extremism programme in 2015-16 ended up in specialist support to turn them away from terrorism, official figures show.

New Home Office figures confirm that most referrals of people thought to be at risk of being drawn into terrorism are made by schools and colleges, with 2,539, or 33%, of all referrals. The police make the second highest number, with 2,377, or 31%, in 2015/16.

The detailed figures show that 2,127 children under 15 were referred to Prevent for extremist concerns in 2015/16, of whom 108 received specialist support through the Channel scheme.

Home Office officials cited the example of a nine-year-old London schoolboy who was referred to Prevent after he stood up in class and said he supported Isis and had watched execution videos after searching for them in the wake of the Paris attacks. After a year of support he had stopped watching the videos and had been successfully diverted away from extremism.

Two-thirds of those referred to Prevent were referred due to concerns about Islamic extremism, with 679, or 10%, referred for concerns about rightwing extremism.

The Home Office data shows that of the 7,631 people referred to the Prevent programme because of concerns in 2015-16, 2,766, or 36%, left the process requiring no further action, 3,793, or 50%, were “signposted to alternative services” such as education or mental health, and only 1,072, or 14%, were considered by special Channel panels to see if they were suitable for the scheme.

The Home Office says 381, or 5%, of the 7,631 referred to Prevent actually received support on the Channel scheme in 2015-16. Some 302 of those who left the scheme in 2015-16 were judged to have had their risk of being drawn into terrorism successfully reduced.

The remaining 63, or 17%, withdrew from the voluntary process although in some cases they continued to receive support from other services such as education or mental health.

The detailed figures show that 69% of those receiving Channel support do so because of concerns about Islamic extremism and 26% are thought to be at risk of far-right extremism.

The data also shows that the number of referrals to Prevent has continued to rise year on year despite widespread criticism that the programme targets Muslim communities. The number of people supported by the specialist Channel scheme has risen from 159 in 2012-13 to 283 in 2014-15 to 381 last year.

Those who are referred to the Prevent programme are assessed by the police and local authority to see if they are suitable for the specialist Channel support scheme. Their case is discussed at a Channel panel made up of police officers, representatives from social services, the education and mental health sectors, and others to decide if an intervention is necessary.

The Channel scheme includes theological or ideological mentoring alongside help with mental health, emotional and drug or alcohol abuse issues as well as education and career advice.

Dan, a 47-year-old, was referred to the Channel support scheme after being an active member of far-right groups and an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia. Years of heavy drinking and his association with “white power” supremacists drove his further radicalisation and fuelled his increasingly violent ideology.

Dan said: “The support I have received through this process has allowed me to feel more valued as a person and made see there is more to life than what I was doing. Without the help of this process, I am sure I would be in prison now.”

The Home Office security minister, Ben Wallace, said the Prevent programme was just one of a number of ways to protect vulnerable people from exploitation. He said: “The voluntary Channel scheme has seen real results in helping divert people away from terrorism and violence. The programme is helping to save lives and keep us safe.”

He acknowledged there was “still a way to go to improve the approach and awareness” of how Prevent could safeguard children and vulnerable adults but said the policy was “going in the right direction”.

Simon Cole, the National Police Chiefs Council lead on Prevent, welcomed the publication of the figures, saying: “In order for Prevent to be effective, it needs the support of the public, police colleagues and the many public sector workers like education and health professionals who we are asking to help safeguard vulnerable people from radicalisation.

“These figures demonstrate that trust and support is growing. Each of these 7,631 referrals was someone trying to guide a person they had concerns about away from harm and towards the help they may have needed.”

Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, the human rights campaign, said “Religious groups, teachers, students and cross-party politicians have all raised serious concerns that Prevent fuels racial and religious discrimination – yet the government has failed to publish any figures on the religion or ethnicity of those referred. How can ministers even begin to command public trust in Prevent without real honesty and transparency about its impact?

“The statistics we do have are worrying. They show a sharp rise in the number of people referred, with children disturbingly overrepresented – and large numbers of cases where no further action is taken, with no analysis of the potentially devastating and stigmatising effects on those incorrectly referred,” she said.