I gave my two minute presentation on Prevent at Scrutiny Committee earlier this week but not until the lead person on Prevent, Kibibi Octave link person had given a Powerpoint Presentation and lead member for Stronger communities Cllr Tom Miller had put forward his views.
I had enough time to ask 9 questions from my list LINK pointing out that secrecy rules means that none of them could be answered and thus proper scrutiny and transparency was not possible. I suggested this reinforced suspicion and lack of confidence in the Prevent Strategy. Octave and Miller admitted this was a problem. In the discussion the former said that there was ‘interest' in the strategy from Brent Muslim groups rather than they ‘bought into’ the strategy. Groups wanted to do things their way rather than be directly aligned with the strategy. Playing Devil's advocate Miller said that if the referral figures were to be published for each borough extremist groups could then focus on the weaker areas.
Muslim groups wanted to do things their way rather than be directly aligned with the strategy. Responding to a question from a councillor Kibibi Octave said that they'd had less success speaking to Muslim women. I pointed out that a well established Muslim women's group, group An-Nisa had asked for dialogue with the Council - so far unsuccessfully.
Cllr Miller said he had a critical approach to the Prevent duty and was sensitive to the concerns of the Muslim community. He said that the duty was mandatory but he tried to follow key principles that centred on safeguarding victims from grooming etc. During the discussion there was much emphasis on avoiding crass referrals and a claim that better training had reduced the number of these. Kibibi Octave said that across London there had been a reduced number of referrals from the education sector in the last year.
I had enough time to ask 9 questions from my list LINK pointing out that secrecy rules means that none of them could be answered and thus proper scrutiny and transparency was not possible. I suggested this reinforced suspicion and lack of confidence in the Prevent Strategy. Octave and Miller admitted this was a problem. In the discussion the former said that there was ‘interest' in the strategy from Brent Muslim groups rather than they ‘bought into’ the strategy. Groups wanted to do things their way rather than be directly aligned with the strategy. Playing Devil's advocate Miller said that if the referral figures were to be published for each borough extremist groups could then focus on the weaker areas.
Muslim groups wanted to do things their way rather than be directly aligned with the strategy. Responding to a question from a councillor Kibibi Octave said that they'd had less success speaking to Muslim women. I pointed out that a well established Muslim women's group, group An-Nisa had asked for dialogue with the Council - so far unsuccessfully.
Cllr Miller said he had a critical approach to the Prevent duty and was sensitive to the concerns of the Muslim community. He said that the duty was mandatory but he tried to follow key principles that centred on safeguarding victims from grooming etc. During the discussion there was much emphasis on avoiding crass referrals and a claim that better training had reduced the number of these. Kibibi Octave said that across London there had been a reduced number of referrals from the education sector in the last year.
