Agenda item

Stephen Rimmer, West Midlands Strategic Lead – Preventing Violence Against Vulnerable People

Councillor Gary Porter welcomed Stephen Rimmer to Councillors’ Forum to talk about the West Midlands’ perspective on community resilience.

Stephen Rimmer discussed the impact of the Trojan Horse challenge and the Review Group that followed. Events in Birmingham have led to discussions about British values, faith and worship in schools and radicalisation. There is a need to improve governance in schools and guarantee equality of opportunity for girls in the UK.

Any discussion of British values needs to take into account the community and the specific needs of the population.

In tackling violence against the vulnerable, it is critical that communities are confident to deal with fundamental issues. There needs to be a move from partnership to integration. The challenge for all agencies is to ask what they are doing with key partners to reduce the risk to communities at the front line.

As part of systems leadership, the actions of key decision makers should reinforce this joined up approach. This is a move to broader thinking that engages communities.

Whitehall is more comfortable with top down models and have had success with the Troubled Families programme, but these may miss out the need to engage communities and create sustainable programmes.

Members discussed:

·         Changing cultures in communities to build trust between the public and service providers.

·         The impact of less Local Authority intervention in education.

·         The role of the cultural view of women and gender in communities.

James Brokenshire MP, Minister for Security and Immigration

Councillor Gary Porter welcomed James Brokenshire MP to Councillors’ Forum to talk about community resilience.

James Brokenshire thanked members for their work in communities to tackle extremism.

The Minister set out the context of the increased threat level in the UK, which was raised to severe by JTAC in August, in response to events in Syria and Iraq.

The Government is committed to supporting communities in challenging extremism and encouraging the referral of individuals who are vulnerable to radicalisation. Reducing travel to the specified areas and encouraging people to show support from inside the UK are part of this work. Particular successes have been:

·         Local Authorities supporting charity collecting in Kirklees.

·         Charities in Birmingham persuaded not to go to the region.

·         Refugee Asylum Support, Blackburn

·         Being Muslim Being British, Cardiff

The current situation has national significance and everyone has a role to play. This includes Councillors as they have direct community connections.

The Minister explained that the Government will respond to the Peter Clarke Report and the Secretary of State will further update the House on this. The Home Office will also work with Department for Education to tackle extremism in schools.

There is a need to improve cooperation to make services like Prevent more productive. All areas need to make a judgement as to whether current activities meet local need. This issue is rooted in communities and Councillors have excellent knowledge of their areas to support this collaborative work. 

Members discussed:

·         Creating cultures where people feel they can come forward, raise issues and action be taken.

·         The increased role of Councillors in supporting this work.