Southwark Prevent
programme
Alex Irvine
Community Support Manager
[email protected]
UK counter terrorism strategy
Prevent is part of “CONTEST”, the UK government’s 2011
counter-terrorism strategy,
The strategy has four strands:
• Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks
• Protect: to strengthen our protection against terrorist
attacks
• Prepare: where an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate its
impact
• Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or
supporting terrorism.
UK counter terrorism strategy
• Prevent is focused on all forms of terrorism
• The violent extremism promoted and carried out by
supporters of the so-called Islamic State poses the biggest
current threat to UK security.
• However, the UK also faces threat of far-right extremism.
The “Prevent” duty
• The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 placed the
Prevent programme on a statutory footing.
• Under the Act, ‘specified bodies’ such as local authorities,
schools, further and higher education colleges, health, and
the police, had a duty to:
“pay due regard to the need to prevent people from
being drawn into terrorism”
• This is referred to as the ‘Prevent Duty’.
Southwark Prevent programme
• Southwark was assessed by the UK government as a priority
borough for Prevent. The Home Office has allocated funding to
the Council for a Prevent Coordinator and for Prevent projects.
• Funding will be for projects which directly target vulnerable
individuals and institutions, as well as activities which tackle
extremist ideology related to terrorism.
• Cases relating to concerns about individuals are addressed under
the separate designation of Channel, a multi-agency partnership
that evaluates referrals of individuals at risk of being drawn into
terrorism, working alongside safeguarding partnerships and crime
reduction panels.
Southwark Prevent programme continued…
In September 2016, the Council agreed a Prevent Action
plan which included three main objectives;
Objective 1:
• Build resilience amongst organisations and people
responsible for public spaces to deny extremists
fundraising opportunities as well as platforms to
propagate their extremist ideologies (focused activity on
ideological/fundraising events and activities, hall/
premises hire, internet cafes)
Southwark Prevent programme cont…
Objective 2:
• Support other organisations in the borough
with the “Prevent duty” (includes
commissioned children, adult and healthcare
services that have a safeguarding function)
Southwark Prevent programme cont…
Objective 3:
• Identify, engage and seek active
participation of key community influencers
to drive the Prevent programme at a local
level (delivered through a strong community
cohesion focus)
Safeguarding children and adults…
• Risk of being drawn into extremist activity that may
lead to terrorism is a safeguarding issue.
• Prevent is about safeguarding people to keep them
safe.
• Prevent is not about preventing people from having
political and religious views and concerns…..but about
supporting them to discuss those concerns and act on
them in non-extremist ways.
Safeguarding children and adults…
• Engaging the person at risk, and all those around them,
in an open and honest way is vital to success.
• Only by being candid about the issues, open about how
they are being tackled, and by delivering a strong and
positive message, can efforts to prevent terrorism be
expected to make a difference.
For discussion…
• What are the key challenges for implementing a Prevent
strategy in the borough and how do we mitigate these?
• How do we strengthen and mainstream the Prevent
agenda into day-to-day workings of the Council and other
organisations with the Prevent Duty, including
communication with vulnerable groups?
• How can communities in the borough play a greater role
in preventing violent extremism?