Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (RIEP) Community Cohesion and Prevent Pilot. A report prepared for: Local Government Yorkshire & Humber

The Centre for Research in the Social Sciences at the University of Huddersfield is pleased to present the findings from the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (RIEP) Pilot Community Cohesion and Prevent Evaluation, funded by Local Government Yorkshire and Humber.
This research addresses the challenges of implementing the community cohesion and Prevent policy agendas, and building strong and positive partnerships across agencies and communities to support that implementation, in two local authority areas, Kirklees and Bradford.

The research took place from November 2009 – March 2010, and used a multi-method approach involving the following:

Interviews with Local Authority and key partner policy makers, officers, and front line staff (20 interviews)

Research by people working in the communities, including youth workers, housing workers, and community workers, with community members (33 interviews and 7 focus groups

Analysis of Local Authority strategies (13 strategies)

Community cohesion emerged as a governmental policy priority in the wake of the violent disturbances in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in the summer of 2001. Prevent is a key component of CONTEST, the government’s counter-terrorism strategy.