1. the Total Prevent Budget for Each Year Starting 2009 to Present

- 1 -

1. The total Prevent budget for each year starting 2009 to present.

2008/09£82,220

2009/10£143,292

2010/11£86,000

2011/12Nil – Kingston no longer a Prevent Priority Borough

2012/13Nil – Kingston no longer a Prevent Priority Borough

2013/14Nil – Kingston no longer a Prevent Priority Borough

The sums above were provided to and used by the Council within its non-ring-fenced Area Based Grant.

2. Copies of any Prevent action plans / strategy documents / annual
reports for each year starting 2009 to present.

A prevent action plan was devised but was maintained as a living document (ie continuously updated) The information in it, actions and output are all covered in the report below, submitted to our Safer Kingston Partnership by myself in October 2011

SAFER KINGSTON PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY GROUP

6 OCTOBER 2011

PREVENTING VIOLENT EXTREMISM OVERVIEW 2008-11

REPORT BY SCOTT HERBERTSON – STRATEGIC LEAD

INTRODUCTION

1. In 2003 the government released a counter-terrorism strategy known as CONTEST. This strategy has since been reviewed twice but its main aim to reduce the risk to the UK and our interests overseas from terrorism, has remained the same. There are four main strands of the CONTEST strategy:

• PURSUE – To stop terrorist attacks by pursuing terrorist suspects and disrupting immediate threats
• PREVENT – Preventing people from becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism
• PROTECT – Protecting infrastructures, borders and crowded places. Generally strengthening our protection against terrorist attack
• PREPARE – Preparing for any incident that may occur. When an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate its impact

1. In 2007/08 there were 26 London boroughs which received funding to carry forward the objectives of the Prevent agenda at a local level. These authorities were known as ‘Pathfinders.’ Kingston was not a Pathfinder authority; instead, Kingston received an additional £105,000 Area Based Grant funding in 2008/09. Although this money was not ringfenced it was earmarked to be spent on the Prevent strand of the CONTEST strategy, to carry out work on Preventing Violent Extremism. Funding was also allocated for the financial years of 2009/10 and 2010/11.

1. The fact that Kingston was not a Pathfinder borough was advantageous as Kingston was able to learn from other authorities and seek out best practice. In 2008 Superintendent Paul McGregor, Chief Inspector John Pendleton and Director of Kingston Race and Equalities Council, John Azah, visited Birmingham to learn about some of the work that they were conducting. These learning opportunities meant that planned work and activity could be tailored to the individual needs of Kingston.

1. Kingston has a strong tradition of respecting and celebrating diversity and community engagement, especially with BME communities. Kingston was keen to mirror this in its approach to Prevent focused work, whilst also remaining aware that the Prevent agenda is a very unique piece of work separate from the Community Cohesion agenda. Although Kingston was deemed a low-risk borough in regard to extremist activity, it was important not to become complacent in delivering Prevent work.

PREVENT GROUP MEMBERSHIP

1. In October 2008 a Prevent Coordinator was appointed to help develop Prevent activity in Kingston, coordinate the Prevent Executive Group and sub-groups and attend any Prevent related conferences and find out about best practice.

1. A small sub-group of the Safer Kingston Partnership was identified initially to scope this wide-ranging and sensitive piece of work. This sub-group comprised of the Head of Cultural Services and Lifelong Learning as the Prevent Strategic Lead, the Police, the Head of Prevention and Intervention, the Safer Kingston Partnership Manager and the Prevent Coordinator. This group functioned as the Executive Group.

1. A Reference Group was also established in May 2009 comprising of individuals from community groups and organisations who were able to offer input on the Prevent agenda. This group met on a quarterly basis. Members of the Reference Group included individuals from the Inter-Faith Forum, Kingston University, Kingston Race and Equalities Council and Kingston Mosque.

COMMUNITY MAPPING

1. Central government stated that each local authority area would need to carry out a mapping exercise of BME communities to make sure that they better understood their communities and its demographic makeup. Government guidance originally placed a particular focus on Muslim communities.

1. The Prevent Executive Group enlisted the help of lecturers and researchers from Kingston University’s Criminology and Sociology department to carry out the Community Engagement Exercise. The work took place in two phases. Phase one used quantitative methods to analyse communities in Kingston. Phase two built upon the knowledge acquired in stage one and used a more ethnographic approach to gain access and obtain interviews. The university was successfully awarded matched funding whilst carrying out this project and so were able to widen their focus to include other hard to reach communities such as the Tamil and Korean communities.

1. The research produced a number of recommendations around how to better engage with the communities that had been studied. The findings were also used to hold a number of workshops for Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and community leaders to help promote a better understanding of particular ward areas, based upon the particular demographics of that neighbourhood.

ACTION PLAN

1. Early government guidance also stated that all local authorities would need to produce a Prevent Action Plan. The Action Plan was to be based upon specific local knowledge and analysis of any known local Prevent activity. The Action Plan would be used to track and guide the Prevent work being carried out in Kingston and make sure that a proportionate response was being delivered.

GRANTS PROGRAMME

1. In the financial year 2009/10 the Prevent Executive Group established a Prevent Grants Programme which also ran in 2010/11. The Prevent Executive Group and Voluntary Sector Unit worked in collaboration to produce an application form and guidance for organisations to use to bid for Prevent funding. Applicants had to show that they were meeting Prevent specific criteria to be considered for funding. Any applications received were reviewed on a monthly basis by the Prevent Executive Group with input from the RBK Grants Officer. Working in conjunction with the Voluntary Sector Unit provided a consistent application process that was based upon existing methods.

PREVENT PROJECTS

1. During the three years that Kingston received Prevent money, a number of projects were delivered using Prevent funding. Supported projects had to meet at least one of the following objectives:

Challenge the violent extremist ideology and support mainstream voices

Disrupt those who promote violent extremism and support the institutions where they are active

Support individuals who are being targeted and recruited to the cause of violent extremism

Increase the resilience of communities to violent extremism

Address the grievances which ideologues are exploiting

Develop understanding, analysis and information

Strategic Communications

1. A range of different projects were delivered (for further details please see Annex A). Examples include; drama projects with Kingston borough primary school children which explored themes such as racism and diversity. Sports projects aimed at vulnerable youths from BME communities. Self defence classes for Muslim women run by female Police officers to help build confidence and communication. Inter-faith events and the delivery of Prevent and radicalisation awareness training to frontline staff.

1. A support process known as the Channel Project was established in Kingston. Channel is a system that supports those who may be vulnerable to extremism by assessing the extent of an individual’s risk and then using a multi-agency panel to decide upon the most appropriate support package. The project operates in the pre-criminal domain as it delivers an early intervention for an individual, before they have committed a criminal act.

TRAINING

1. The Office for Security & Counter Terrorism (OSCT) devised a training package known as Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). This training was aimed at frontline staff that may come into contact with individuals who may be vulnerable to extreme influences and radicalisation. The workshop gave an overview of the Prevent agenda, used real life case studies of individuals whose vulnerabilities had been exploited, explored what interventions could be put in place to support vulnerable people and discussed how staff should go about reporting any concerns they have about an individual or group.

1. The Prevent Coordinator and Met Police Prevent Engagement Officer were both trained to facilitate and deliver the training. To date, 141 members of staff have been trained including Police (PCs, PCSOs, Safer Transport Teams, Schools Teams and other Police Staff), teachers, youth workers and a number of staff from other RBK departments.)

1. The training ceased in July 2011 whilst OSCT update the existing package to better fit with the coalition government’s review of the Prevent Strategy which was released in June 2011. The second edition of WRAP is expected to be ready by October 2011.

BARRIERS TO DELIVERY

1. Kingston did experience some barriers to delivering the Prevent work. Firstly, there were some capacity issues due to the fact that Kingston received one of the lowest amounts of Prevent funding within Greater London. This meant that the Prevent Coordinator was not able to go out and engage with community groups and organisations to raise awareness of Prevent. However, the Met Police Prevent Engagement Officer was recruited in late 2009 and was able to start Prevent outreach work. Secondly, many groups and organisations viewed the Prevent Strategy with some scepticism. Many individuals felt that the Prevent Strategy focused too heavily on working with Muslim communities and had created a negative stereotype of Islam. Admittedly the strategy did originally focus solely on Muslim Communities before being amended to look at all forms of extremism. An article published in The Guardian in October 2009 described the Prevent Strategy as a programme being used to spy on innocent Muslims across Britain. Although this allegation was vehemently denied by the Home Office, the article was severely damaging for the reputation of Prevent. Groups and organisations were further discouraged from applying for funding under the Prevent banner due to the negative connotations which had become attached to the strategy.

1. Kingston worked hard to positively promote the Prevent Strategy but often a more inclusive Community Cohesion approach towards Prevent projects was taken. Some of the Prevent funding was also used to hold an event where Muslim Communities were invited to come and discuss their concerns about the Prevent Strategy. The event allowed grievances to be aired and gave the chance to try and rethink the delivery of Prevent work and break down some of the barriers surrounding it.

RELATIONSHIP WITH KINGSTON MOSQUE

1. Kingston upon Thames only has one mosque in the borough and so it was very important to establish good links with the mosque regarding Prevent work. Good links already existed between RBK and the mosque and so dialogue around Prevent was established quickly. Although the mosque had concerns about the Prevent Strategy they worked closely with RBK and other partners, such as the Police, in shaping Prevent delivery in a way that was appropriate for Kingston. Some of the mosque’s committee members sat on the Prevent Reference Group.

1. On Sunday 21 November Kingston Mosque was attacked by a group of protestors. After the attack, leaders from many Kingston communities joined together with the mosque to condemn the attack and to express their unity of purpose. Kingston’s community leaders were quoted as saying “because we are such a close community we consider an attack on any one section of our faith community to be an affront to us all.” This attack was the first extreme act committed in the borough since the launch of the Prevent Strategy. It materialised that the perpetrators were supporters of the English Defence League, however, none of those charged with the offence were Kingston Borough residents. From such a terrible act, positive learning arose. In June 2011 a Community Cohesion Event was held with leaders and representatives of community, ethnic and faith organisations, to explore the meaning of “community” in Kingston. The event took place at Kingston University and begun with the showing of a DVD made in conjunction with the mosque, Kingston Police and Kingston University which focused on the community’s response to the attack on the mosque.

FUTURE OF PREVENT

1. The coalition government’s review of the Prevent Strategy was released in June 2011. The new strategy outlined 25 priority areas that would receive funding in 2011/12. Of these 25 areas, 16 were London boroughs but Kingston was not chosen as a priority area. This means that RBK has not received any funding for Prevent work; however, the post of Kingston’s Prevent Engagement Officer within the Met Police is still being funded.

1. The new Prevent Strategy did outline the following

“11.1 Under the last strategy, most local authority areas in England developed a partnership structure to facilitate Prevent delivery. 104 Some areas created a group specifically focused on Prevent, while others used existing crime reduction partnerships or another local multi-agency strategic structure. We expect all local areas to have a partnership tasked to take forward work on Prevent using the most appropriate structure in their area and to a level which is proportionate to local risk.

11.12 Wherever possible, the partnership should comprise social services, policing, children’s services, youth services, UKBA, representatives from further and higher education, probation services, schools, local prisons, health and others as required by local need. Partnership working should not be restricted by local authority area boundaries. In the past, local authorities have worked together effectively, sometimes sharing and pooling resources. We encourage greater levels of partnership working between local authorities and partners in future.”

RBK will therefore ensure that a partnership group still exists should any Prevent focused work need to be carried out.

1. Once OSCT have released the second edition of the WRAP training, roll out of the awareness workshop will continue. The Met Police Prevent Engagement Officer is currently in the process of organising two sessions to be delivered to library staff within the borough and the Drug Intervention Programme team.

1. Channel interventions will continue where appropriate and the Information-Sharing Protocol was updated, in conjunction with SO15, in August 2011.

1. A new Community Cohesion Group is currently being established to follow up on the findings from the Community Cohesion event which was held at Kingston University in June 2011. Although this work is separate from Prevent, the Community Cohesion Group will be involved in a range of projects and initiatives that will be beneficial in ensuring Kingston continues to be a safe and cohesive place to live, work, study and visit. Any Prevent focused work will be proportionate to the local risk.

- 1 -

ANNEX A

KINGSTON PREVENT PROJECTS 2008-2011

3. Funding information for each year from 2009 to present,including a list of organisations that receive(d) Prevent fundingand project details for this spending