AGENDA ITEM 6
BOROUGH OF POOLE
COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
17 MARCH 2015
UPDATE ON EXPERIENCES OF PREJUDICE IN POOLE AND
PREVENTING EXTREMISM
1.
PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide Elected Members with a progress
update with actions taken as a result of the ‘Scrutiny Review of people in
Poole’s experiences of prejudice, and the Borough’s duties around the
preventing violent extremism agenda.
1.2 It also recommends further training for Members and officers.
2.
RECOMMENDATIONS
2.1 That the Committee:
a) Note and comment on the progress made with the delivery of the Scrutiny
Review action plan.
b) Recommends to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services that Member
induction includes equality and diversity training and raising awareness
around the ‘Prevent’ agenda.
c) Recommends to the Council’s Management Team that the Home Office
accredited ‘Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent’ (WRAP) continues to
be offered to all council officers and Members as appropriate.
3.
BACKGROUND
3.1 A Working Party of Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members
reported their findings and presented an action plan from a scrutiny review
that explored people in Poole’s experiences of prejudice, to Full Council in
February 2014.
3.2 The four main aims resulting from the Scrutiny Review were to:
a) Increase the proportion of people who report their experience of prejudice in
Poole;
b) Enable more people who experience prejudice to get the type and level of
support they need;
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c) Reduce the perception that Poole bus station is unsafe especially with
people for learning disabilities and young people;
d) Increase the perception of BME people and young people of different
backgrounds get on well together in Poole.
3.3 Since this time we have been working with partners to progress the four main
aims and actions identified. Progress is shared below and in Appendix A.
3.4 Preventing violent extremism is part of the Government’s Counter Terrorism
Strategy and Borough of Poole has been working on the ‘Prevent’ agenda with
Dorset Police and other partners for about five years. In particular we have
been training frontline staff to be aware of vulnerable people who may be
susceptible to radicalisation, and of the referral process if anyone has
concerns. This is done through the Home Office approved ‘Workshop to
Raise Awareness of Prevent’ or WRAP training, which is now in its third
iteration.
3.5 We have also established a Channel Panel for Poole, which would be
convened if Dorset Police had significant enough concerns about a person
becoming radicalised. Referrals into the Channel process can be made by
any agency. The Panel is a multiagency meeting, chaired by the local
authority Head of Social Care for either children or adult services, where the
concerns would be discussed and a support plan for the person would be put
in place. Agencies also support people where a person does not meet police
thresholds but may need help.
4.
PROGRESS AND KEY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE SCRUTINY REVIEW
4.1 Since the Scrutiny Review presented their findings and action plan, a number
of key actions have been progressed. These are:
a) Dorset Police have seen an increase in the number of prejudice incidents
reported to them. They have also received high levels of satisfaction with
how incidents have been dealt with. This has been as a result of launching
the Dorset Hate Crime reporting app, and improvements in the recording of
incidents and the processes for dealing with incidents.
b) The Council has also significantly increased the number of reports it has
taken from 20 in 2013/14 to 35 in 2014/15 (year to date). We continue to run
training and raise awareness of the importance of prejudice incident
reporting with employees and Members.
c) We have developed a comprehensive Community Cohesion
Communications Plan, which regularly promotes diversity and the positive
contribution all sections of Poole’s communities make to the town.
d) We have improved our community tension monitoring so that when
significant national or local events that can have an impact on community
relations arise we share that information and work with partners to manage
any impacts.
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4.2 More details about progress against the actions can be found in Appendix A.
5.
PROGRESS AND KEY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM PREVENT WORK
5.1 Having already trained several hundred frontline employees, we are continuing
to raise awareness of the agenda through the new WRAP 3 training package,
which went live in October 2014. The Borough has two Home Office
accredited trainers who deliver the shorter, hour and a half package, to all
revenant practitioners. To date WRAP 3 has been delivered to approximately
65 people. This has included bespoke sessions for Poole Housing Partnership
and Skills and Learning. The new WRAP 3 session covers the Dorset
‘Channel’ referral process, which includes information for practitioners on how
to respond to concerns of radicalisation.
5.2 To date we have not had to convene a Channel Panel in Poole. We have
however provided support to approximately six adults and young people from
Poole, who have not met the Channel Panel threshold, but have needed some
additional support. An example includes a bespoke education package to
challenge prejudice within a school.
6.
NEXT STEPS FOR SCRUTINY REVIEW ACTIONS
6.1 One of the key actions following the election will be to ensure that Member
induction includes equality and diversity training, including our prejudice
incident reporting process. Separate Gypsy and Traveller training is also
being organised for Gypsy and Traveller History Month in June.
6.2 Borough of Poole is part of the Pan-Dorset Prejudice Free Group, which seeks
to challenge prejudice and encourage prejudice incident reporting. Dorset
Police now chair this Group and it is currently reviewing its governance,
strategic direction, terms of reference and action plan. Their new action plan,
which we will support, will focus on:
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Extending reporting of hate crimes/incidents across Dorset;
Encouraging agencies to submit incident monitoring data and to analyse it;
Strategically developing ongoing publicity campaigns;
Developing Community Cohesion Tension Monitoring Plans across Dorset;
Improving support for victims of hate crime;
Improving support to those persons responsible for investigating and dealing
with hate incidents and crimes;
Co-ordinating pan-Dorset activities.
6.3 The new Shaping Poole Survey asked the question ‘To what extent do you
agree or disagree that your local area is a place where people from different
ethnic backgrounds get on well together? By getting on well together we mean
treating each other with respect.” The headline results are as follows:
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Different ethnic backgrounds get on well (%)
Definitely Agree
13
Tend to agree
71
Tend to disagree
12
Definitely disagree
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0
20
40
60
80
Weighted base: 1304 (2014), 1582 (2011)
6.4 We need to do more detailed analysis of the results to see if there are
significant differences by geography but also by sex, age and if there is
statistically significant information but BME group. We will action plan based
on these results.
7.
NEXT STEPS FOR PREVENT IN POOLE
7.1 The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill 2015 became law last month and
places a duty on specified authorities, including local authorities and schools,
to have ‘due regard, in the exercise of its functions, to the need to prevent
people from being drawn into terrorism’. The Government has recently
consulted on new Prevent guidance to support this and it appears that there
will be an expectation on local authorities and schools to:
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Understand the risks of radicalisation
Ensure staff understand the risk and build capabilities to deal with it
Communicate and promote the importance of the duty
Ensure staff implement the duty effectively
7.2 In anticipation of the above duty, the Borough needs to continue to roll out
WRAP 3 training to council officers and Members. Schools will also be offered
this training.
7.3 As well as the implications from these new duties, recent national and
international events have highlighted the importance of raising awareness of
Prevent. With this in mind, the Borough will work with the Pan- Dorset Prevent
Delivery Group to strengthen its existing action plan and build on work with
schools and other children’s services.
8.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
8.1 There may be some financial implications attached to the next steps identified
above. These will be explored further when the actions are developed and
managed within existing budgets.
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8.2 WRAP training is delivered by in house trainers and is required to be offered
free of charge. There are only opportunity costs associated with employees
by away from their regular duties. These are considered to be in the region of
£12 an hour on average.
9.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
9.1 The Scrutiny Review work positively supports the Council’s Equality Act 2010
public sector equality duties to:
• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other
prohibited conduct for those protected by the Equality Act 2010,
• Advance equal opportunities
• Foster good relations between those protected by the Act.
9.2 The Borough will now have to ensure it meets obligations under the new
Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, which received Royal Assent last month.
10. EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS
10.1 The Scrutiny Review action plan aims to challenge and tackle issues of
prejudice and therefore aims to have a positive impact on disabled people,
BME people, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Trans people, people of different
faiths and young people specifically.
10.2 The ‘Prevent’ agenda aims to prevent people being drawn into all forms of
terrorism. In undertaking this work locally we are mindful that the risk comes
from far-right and environmental-related extremism, as well as ‘Al-Qaida’ and
‘Islamic State’ influenced terrorism.
10.3 On occasion, there can be tensions between undertaking ‘Prevent’ and our
Equality Act duty to promote good relations. We consider and manage this
carefully. For example, in training we ensure delegates understand that
locally we are at risk of all of the above types of terrorism. It also important
that we have robust responses to racist incidents that arise as a result of
national and international events as they may impact on local community
tensions.
11. RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
11.1 The risk from not addressing people’s experiences of prejudice is likely to be
rising community tensions. The above programme of activity reduces this risk,
as well as establishing mechanisms to identify and manage this low level risk.
11.2 The current national terrorism threat level is severe. Local threats are
monitored by Dorset Police Special Branch and concerns are shared through
the Pan- Dorset Contest Board, which Borough of Poole are represented at.
Intelligence suggests that local threats are currently low.
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12. CONCLUSION
12.1 Borough of Poole will continue to work with partners to challenge prejudice
and encourage people to report prejudice. We will also maintain a focus on
communications to promote community cohesion, and monitor and respond to
community tension as they arise, particularly as national and international
‘terrorism’ related news and events may lead to local issues.
12.2 The Borough will, with its partners, need to strengthen is action plan and
training for the Prevent agenda, in response to the new Counter Terrorism and
Security Act 2015. Current Dorset Police intelligence says that the risk is low
but it is important to avoid complacency on this complex issue.
Contact Officer:
Emma Leatherbarrow
[email protected]
Strategy Team Manager
February 2015
APPENDIX A: Progress against actions from the Scrutiny Review of people in
Poole’s experiences of prejudice
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