COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (267) issued by COI News Distribution
Service. 11 November 2008
Communities
Secretary Hazel Blears has today published a report from the Audit
Commission and Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary which
assesses the progress that has been made on Preventing Violent
Extremism to date.
The report, "Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and
Development Exercise" commissioned by the Department for
Communities and Local Government highlights some of the excellent
work underway across the country. It suggests that initial
problems with Prevent are being addressed, that local areas are
growing in confidence, fostering real expertise, creating the
right links into communities, already overcoming challenges and
developing responses to tackling extremism. But it also highlights
areas for improvement, suggests that progress needs to become more
uniform across the country and that information sharing between
different bodies needs to be increased.
Hazel Blears said:
"We have seen real progress, some excellent work and a
wealth of experience being developed. This was always intended to
be a year we would learn from and we commissioned this report to
give us the opportunity to take stock, understand what has worked
and how we can better support that. But I do want to be clear that
tackling extremism is about much more than community cohesion, and
trust and partnership is key, shying away from an agenda that we
all know presents challenges and difficulties is simply not an option."
"I am confident that local responses alongside tough
security measures remain the best way to tackle this issue and
work will continue. There are lessons for all of us, central and
local government, police and security services and community
groups and this report will help us learn them.
Researchers were looking to learn from those sites with
experience of violent extremism and identified key learning points
for central and local government, police, security services and
community groups about how work in a number of areas could be
improved. These include:
* Continuing to improve Information Sharing practices between
different organisations who are involved in preventing violent
extremism in local areas.
* Gaining a better understanding the risks and increasing
effective partnership working. The report signals some key success
factors including the importance of involving faith and community
leaders, empowering communities to lead this agenda, ensuring that
Prevent is not seen as an add on but core business on the radar of
people at all levels and understanding the way that international
and national events might play out in communities.
* Looking at how better local authorities and central government
can assess success of their projects.
The Department of Communities will now consider the report in
further detail. However, many steps have already been taken to
address several of the issues raised in the report including:
* Issuing guidance to local authorities in the summer setting out
clear expectations and priorities for this work
* Establishing a Local Delivery Advisory Group comprising council
leaders, chief executives, education advisers, community cohesion
advisors and housing association representatives to provide
leadership across their sectors and to advise the Secretary of
State on how things are going at local level.
* The Association of Chief Police Officers are developing a
process and guidance for effective information sharing between the
police and partners which can be tailored to local circumstances
to improve the quality and flow of information and are clear that
Sharing information about the vulnerability of individuals or
communities with trusted partners is essential to effective
partnership activity to tackle violent extremism
* We will hold a national conference in December, with up to
1,000 attendees, which will seek to share best practice within the
UK and learn from other international programmes.
* Established a peer support system, with more experienced
councillors and local authority officers reviewing and providing
advice to areas who ask for help.
* Established a website for sharing best practice and
distributing key documents which has over 160 members.
* Guidance on appropriate use of language has been issued to
local authorities and RICU have set up a new local unit seeking to
provide more active support to LAs.
* Established a beacon scheme for 'cohesive and resilient
communities', which will support high performing local
authorities to spread best practice across the sector and internationally
Notes to editors
1. The United Kingdom (UK), like many other countries, faces a
severe and continuing threat from international terrorism.
Preventing violent extremism (Prevent) and the terrorist acts that
may follow is a long term challenge to be addressed at
international, national and local levels. The government aims to
prevent people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism
through the Prevent component of the UK counter terrorism strategy.
2. Councils, police, youth offending teams, schools, further and
higher education, local health services, probation, prison
services and fire and rescue services are all key players in
delivering Prevent locally. This is a new and evolving demand on
local public service partners.
3. In April 2007, 70 councils in England received a total of £6
million from the Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund
(PVEPF) for partnership work with the police and other local
services. A further £45 million will be provided to councils by
the government between 2008 and 2011.
4. Earlier this year the Department for Communities and Local
Government commissioned the Audit Commission and Her
Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary to look at the Pathfinder
programme and undertake a learning and development exercise (LDE)
to draw out the learning from the first year of the programme.
They visited 15 sites to ascertain how local partnerships were
responding to the challenge of preventing people becoming involved
in or supporting violent extremism. They looked at what worked
well and identified barriers to progress.
5. The report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and
Development Exercise will be available shortly on our website but
in the mean time is available from the DCLG press office - please
call 0207 944 3372 to request a copy.
Media Enquiries: 020 7944 8033
News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsroom