Agenda item

Andy Shippey, Community Safety Officer PREVENT/reducing Reoffending and Marion Walker, Head of Stronger Communities and CHANNEL Chair will be in attendance to provide the panel with an update.

The Chair welcomed Andy Shippey, Community Safety Officer PREVENT/reducing Reoffending and Marion Walker, Head of Stronger Communities and CHANNEL Chair to the meeting.

The Community Safety officer provided the following information:

·        Prevent is part of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST and is designed to safeguard vulnerable people and communities from the threat of radicalisation and being drawn into terrorism. There are different types of terrorism and Prevent deals with all of them. The most common types of terrorism in the UK are Islamist terrorism and extreme right-wing terrorism.

·        PREVENT and the safeguarding component CHANNEL is voluntary and only works with consent of the vulnerable person at risk and takes a person centred approach in helping the individual address vulnerabilities and increase their resilience against the hateful extremist influence.

·        The Middlesbrough Operational Prevent group work together with partnership agencies to stop people becoming involved in or supporting terrorist activity. Under the Prevent Duty all public sector agencies have a responsibility to ensure their staff and volunteers have a good understanding of Prevent and their responsibilities towards individuals, groups, or families they are working with.

·        The Operational Prevent group prepares  Action plans designed to reduce the risk by increasing communities' resilience and awareness, Training and awareness raising and Promotion of the safeguarding nature of PREVENT.

·        In addition to Scrutiny,  the work and actions of PREVENT are also overseen by the CQC, Ofsted, Office of the Policing and Crime Commissioner and Community safety partnership.

The Community Safety Officer provided the Panel with information on recent action carried out within the community, these included for example:

·        Safer giving campaign

·        Working with a Local College around community cohesion conversations and work using the Lets Discuss campaign material

·        Promotion of the Act early campaign in different languages

·        Joint social media campaign to promote prevent and online resilience with Newcastle Council

·        Continued support to national campaign Real Stories

The Community Safety Officer provided further information on contributions to the Cleveland Police approach and further examples of training and support and awareness sharing.

The Head of Stronger Communities and Channel Chair provided the Panel with some information on Channel advising of the following:

·        CHANNEL across Cleveland is bespoke as our regional figures are low in comparison to other areas.

·        The CHANNEL panel is a safeguarding meeting of multi disciplinary professionals whom all work towards assisting the vulnerable young person or adult build their resilience againstthe extremist narrative whilst addressing any vulnerabilities they may have

·        CHANNEL operates on a consensual basis and consent must be sought from the individual

·        The type of support available through CHANNLE is wide-ranging, and can include help with education or careers advice, dealing with mental or emotional health issues, or digital safety training for parents; it all depends on the individual’s needs.

The panel were very complimentary of the work undertaken by Prevent/ Channel and acknowledge the modules which are on the council’s elearning. A panel member queried how employees who do not have access to a computer receive information and the Community safety officer advised he would circulate this information to the panel. It was also recommended that a member briefing session should be established to provide up to date information to councilors.

AGREED

That the information be noted.