Agenda item

The Assistant Director, Economic Development and Inclusion, presented a report to the Committee on the work of the LSP and in particular, the current activities to deliver NI 35, ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’.  The report outlined the context for this work, the overview of the national framework, key activities being pursued in Slough and future work planned. 

The Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) agenda formed one part of the Government’s wider Council terrorism strategy, CONTEST.  Active since 2003, CONTEST involved four main ‘work streams’ namely Pursue, Prevent, Protect, and Prepare.  PVE formed part of the Prevent work stream, the main concern of which is ‘stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism’. The PVE delivery strategy paper outlined six key priorities for preventative work which had been translated into NI 35. This National Indicator measured the performance of local authorities against 4 separate, yet inter-related criteria, as follows:-

·  Understanding of and engagement with Muslim communities.

·  Knowledge and understanding of the drivers and causes of violent extremism and the Prevent objectives.

·  Development of a risk based prevent violent extremism action plan, in support of delivery of the Prevent objectives.

·  Effective oversight, delivery and evaluation of projects and actions.

The Committee was advised that an important facet of the national work was the explicit focus on the Muslim community.  Consequently, the funding formula used to determine the level of grant that the Local Authority area would receive was linked to the size of the local Muslim population. 

NI 35 was a key priority for the LSP and this was reflected in the Local Area Agreement (LAA). Delivery of the Slough Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) agenda against the LAA was stretched over a three year period and aimed to both meet overarching objectives and address localised priorities. A project had been commissioned to formally assess the impact of SAVE and its delivery thus far.  It was emphasised to the Committee that measuring the outcomes of SAVE was likely to be problematic due to the subjective nature of the outcome.

In the subsequent discussion Members raised several issues including:-

• A number of concerns were raised by Members regarding a parliamentary report on the Prevent agenda emphasising a lack of accountability and the issues involved with focussing upon a specific community.  Members emphasised the need for integration and tolerance.  The Assistant Director advised the Committee that the decision to focus upon the Muslim Community was one that was embedded within the performance framework and not one which could be influenced locally.  However, the need for all communities to work together was acknowledged as highly important.  A significant amount of work was currently taking place in schools to further integration amongst young people and statistically, the proportion of the community who get along well with others of different racial origin, had improved for Slough relative to the rest of the UK. 

• With regard to the funding received for SAVE, a Member queried whether there were any implications arising from the existing underestimates of Slough’s population.  The Assistant Director noted that whilst the official statistics based on 2001 census would be used, this would be consistent across the country.

• A Member queried what the Prevent agenda was achieving and was advised that it was a difficult outcome to measure.  However, NI 35 would continue to be developed and the Council would modify its response accordingly.

• Returning to the issue of integration, a Member queried what work could be done to further improve this.  The Committee was advised that the Borders and Immigration Agency was currently testing which interventions appeared to deliver the best results and that this would inform future work.  This initiative was funded by the European Integration Fund.  The Assistant Director also highlighted that the Council could stipulate the way in which the resources for the SAVE agenda were allocated.

Resolved – That the report be noted.