To review the work being carried out to prevent radicalisation, exploitation and modern slavery for adults.

(Note:  Members of the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board have been invited for this item.)

The Community Safety Partnership Manager, Sarah Omell, presented the submitted report on the Prevent and Modern Slavery Workstreams and responded to questions.

Members raised the following questions:

·                     how many young people or older people were attempting to radicalise in Torbay;

·                     how were Councillors being made aware, were there any tools to support them;

·                     does Torbay tap into Devon’s intelligence;

·                     paragraph 2.3 referred to enable people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate, how was this done;

·                     with data being gathered, how was the data being used and how was it feeding into the national picture and was Torbay seeing anything nationally coming down to Torbay;

·                     does the Partnership get intelligence from other neighbouring authorities about people coming into the area;

·                     does the Partnership work with Network Rail;

·                     was the low referral take up due to lack of awareness and where would it be escalated;

·                     with the low intake of adults, was it just the Police who could refer;

·                     did the Council inspect its suppliers to ensure that they are complying with the modern slavery policies (a written response would be provided);

·                     was there a good quality e-learn link that could be shared with the community and partners regarding modern slavery;

·                     how does the Partnership raise awareness of modern slavery;

·                     there was a recent issues with foreign workers not knowing how to contact the Police as it was not part of their natural way, what goes on to raise awareness with foreign workers concerned about racism within care homes etc.;

In response to questions, the Community Safety Partnership Manager responded as follows:

·                     There were very low numbers of people attempting to radicalise, approximately 3 or 4 young people and less adults over the past twelve months.  It was not known if that was because there were not young people, or that there were not that many young people susceptible to it.  This was mainly carried out online and therefore the Council did not have access to some of the data.  The key message was for people to be vigilant in schools and at work to recognise the signs.  Neurodiverse younger males were more likely to be susceptible.  There may be people the Council and partners do not know about as it mainly happens behind closed doors.

·                     There were iLearn training packages available which could be opened up to Councillors and a ‘Lets Talk About it’ package available to anyone.  The Safer Torbay Partnership was starting to role the Lets Talk About it out and have lots of short videos and information about what parents need to do to keep their children safe online.  A lot of work was going on through the Children and Young People’s Exploitation Group as well as working with transport providers.  Some of the Lets Talk About it sessions were exploring why neurodiverse people were more susceptible, this may be due to them being more prone to go down rabbit holes and take them into places aligned with radicalisation, looking at what could be done and recognising early signs.  It was important to raise awareness in the community and it was acknowledged that there was always more that could be done with businesses and how much we need to talk about adults as well as children being at risk.

·                     Torbay Council works with Devon and Cornwall Police and through Counter Terrorism networks linked with both local and national policing to share intelligence.

·                     There were Intervention Provider organisations who were focussed on rehabilitation of people involved in terrorism, who provide direct engagement to try to re-educate them and bring them back.  It could only be done with consent, unless a crime had been committed and the person had been ordered to engage.  Consent based intervention could be challenging.  People who have come through the Partnership processes had not committed a terrorism related offence, most of the work had been around prevention, with numbers being very low.  The Police was responsible for Prevent and the Council was responsible for Channel.  It was important to get the right partners round the table to talk to them about Prevent and what support was available.

·                     The Prevent Partnership Board structure included a Home Office representative who works closely with Safter Torbay, prisons, education as well as local structures in Health and Police.  There is also a Devon and Cornwall Contest Board, which was responsible for the Counter Terrorism Strategy from the Government which received direct national updates, Prevent was one strand of their work and all shared relevant data and intelligence.  South West of England including Torbay was generally at risk from far right groups and this had been the case for some time.  This did not mean that the Partnership excluded other forms of risk.

·                     There was good risk sharing linked with the Police and Probation Service looking at certain types of offending based on risk.

·                     Part of the work of the Prevent Partnership was to raise awareness, it may be that partners do not know where to raise concerns.  They were looking at how to target communities and networks within the communities.  Benchmarking was carried out with recommendations around communication and engagement but more could be done.  It was recognised that there was a fine line about talking about raising awareness and not scaring people, empowering people so that they were clear what to escalate and what to do.

·                     Anyone can make a referral, there were a few referrals from Education, housing providers as well as members of the community.

·                     There was a lot of good information on the website and through Unseen on modern slavery which was available to the public.  The Partnership has done work in the past but there were resource implications.  There was a need to prioritise work against the level of risk.  Modern Slavery was part of the mandatory training for all Council staff as part of induction and ongoing training.  There would be a Prevent and Modern Slavery element as part of the Manager’s mandatory training with Managers being encouraged to raise awareness through Team meetings.

·                     There was an Anti-Slavery Partnership with Health who would be looking at how to support foreign workers and going through similar awareness raising as the Council.  There were lots of stressors internationally and nationally that impacted on modern slavery and could impact on the health workforce.  The Council was looking at how we have better contact with a more diverse element of the community as an organisation.  It was an area that the Council was generally concerned about.  Councillors know their communities and sensing any tensions should report concerns into the system.

·                     There was an intelligence portal that was used to capture and share information about modern slavery available to partners.

Resolved (unanimously):

1.         that the Democratic Services Team Leader be requested to arrange all Councillor training on Prevent, Channel and Modern Slavery as well as looking at access to the iLearn modules;

2.         that the Director of Adult and Community Services be requested to circulate information to all Councillors and Co-opted Members, including posts that may be suitable to share on social media, on what to look out for and where to refer people in respect of Prevent, Channel and Modern Slavery;

3.         that the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board support a wider campaign, which includes all Councillors and Co-opted Members and provides posts that may be suitable to share on social media, on what to look out for and where to refer people in respect of Prevent, Channel and Modern Slavery; and

4.         that a follow up report on Prevent and Modern Slavery is presented at a future meeting (November) to update Members on progress and provide more details on findings and recommendations from the wider Partnership Reviews once they are completed.