Understanding extremism in Scotland: public sector practitioner perceptions and views

9. Conclusions

This section will firstly summarise the key findings and implications of the research, before providing some suggestions for further research.

9.1. Implications and considerations

Understanding of extremism

The research found that public sector practitioners struggled to come to a clear definition of extremism, even when prompted with potential definitions. Rather than using a set definition of extremism, practitioners tended to say that extremism was something that they would recognise if and when they saw it, and were often more comfortable focusing on the set of factors that may make an individual more vulnerable to extremist ideologies, rather than a specific set of behaviours that might indicate someone holds extremist beliefs.

Taken together, this indicates that practitioners currently have a limited understanding of what is meant by extremism. There are two key implications of this for the Scottish Government.

Firstly, it will be difficult for public sector practitioners’ understanding to inform the development of a definition of extremism by the Scottish Government. Practitioners’ limited understanding and lack of a consensus on what defines extremism means that their ability to inform these discussions is limited, unless they are given significant additional information and time to deliberate on this (more detail on how this could be done is included in section 9.2).

Secondly, assuming that the Scottish Government does produce a definition of extremism, there will need to be significant thought and effort put into ensuring that this definition is clearly understood by public sector practitioners. Given that current understanding of extremism is low and that some of the language used by public sector practitioners either does not match the language currently used by the Scottish Government or is used to communicate different meaning, there is a risk that a new definition of extremism may not be fully understood or may be misinterpreted. Reflecting the language that practitioners use and/or producing educational material on the meaning of different terminology may be required to ensure that a new definition is fully understood and has a positive impact on public sector practitioners work in relation to Prevent.

Views on extremism in Scotland

The research found that behaviours which might in other contexts be seen as extremist – particularly those related to sectarianism – were not always considered to be manifestations of extremism in Scotland.

There was a gap in awareness and understanding about what kinds of extremism exist in Scotland between practitioners who were more familiar with Prevent and those less familiar with Prevent in their roles.

Public sector practitioners less familiar with Prevent were less likely to be aware of or see right-wing extremism and mixed, unstable and unclear concerns as a problem in Scotland, and more likely to make an association with Islamist extremism, and see it as a bigger problem, compared with public sector practitioners more familiar with Prevent. According to the latest Prevent referral data for Scotland (Police Scotland, 2023b), the most common type of concern for which individuals were referred related to a mixed, unstable or unclear ideology (54% of referrals), followed by right-wing extremism (31%). Right-wing extremism referrals made up the greatest proportion of referrals deemed suitable for Prevent Case Management^[13] (64%). These data highlight the need for public sector practitioners to have a good understanding of these ideologies.

A small number of public sector practitioners expressed views prejudiced against Islam and used this as an explanatory factor for why they believed extremism is not a major issue in Scotland.

The research findings suggest that providing up-to-date guidance on the extremist beliefs, ideologies, behaviours and trends that public sector practitioners should be aware of in the Scottish context may help increase understanding. This may include promoting the Prevent eLearning products (online resources to educate public sector practitioners about Prevent) more widely.

Additionally, this research suggests that work may need to be done to address problematic or offensive views amongst a small number of public sector practitioners to ensure they are fairly and consistently applying the Prevent duty.

Understanding of the Prevent duty in public sector practitioners’ work

The vast majority of practitioners initially considered safeguarding, but not Prevent, as part of their role. There was a sense that safeguarding duties felt more familiar, with more direct relevance to their roles than Prevent duties. This was especially pronounced for practitioners who frequently work with vulnerable people.

Nonetheless, the research found that there was appetite for increasing awareness and understanding of Prevent among public sector practitioners. This research also found that presenting public sector practitioners with a definition of Prevent raised awareness of the Prevent duty as part of their role.

Therefore, this research suggests that more needs to be done to raise awareness that the Prevent duty is part of public sector practitioners’ roles, and of the risk attached to it not being properly understood and delivered. The findings also suggest that emphasising the safeguarding aspect of Prevent may increase the relevance of Prevent for public sector practitioners who see safeguarding as a relevant aspect of their role.

Delivery of the Prevent duty

Even among those who were aware of Prevent and who saw it as part of their role, public sector practitioners were more likely to feel confident in describing the characteristics or circumstances of an individual who might be vulnerable to extremism than in identifying potentially extremist behaviours. Public sector practitioners often had difficulty articulating what signs they would look out for, and, especially for those without Prevent-related roles, what the exact Prevent referral process was in a situation where they came across someone vulnerable to extremism.

Based on this finding, this research suggests that raising awareness among public sector practitioners of training and guidance which provides practical advice on behaviours to look out for would be beneficial.

In terms of potential improvements to the training provided, given the diversity of public sector practitioners’ interaction with the public in relation to their job roles and sectors, guidance on behaviours to look out for should ideally be tailored to their roles and sectors. More broadly, tailoring the information within the Prevent duty guidance to specific job roles may also help public sector practitioners engage with it.

9.2. Suggestions for further research

Further social research

Two of the original objectives were found to be beyond the scope of this research and may be suitable for further research with public sector practitioners working closely with extremism and Prevent:

• What do public sector practitioners find to be most effective in preventing the spread of extremist ideologies?
• How has the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns had an impact on public sector practitioners’ abilities to monitor or respond to any changes in terms of spread of ideologies?

Further deliberative research

This research has found that public sector practitioners struggled to come to a definition of extremism, due to low starting levels of knowledge about the topic. If the Scottish Government wishes to use the views and experiences of public sector practitioners to inform the design of its own definition of extremism, it may be useful to undertake a programme of deliberative research^[14] with public sector practitioners on how to define extremism.

Further communications research

As many of the key findings of this research relate to a lack of clarity around terminology, it may also be useful to undertake a programme of ‘communications testing research’^[15] to identify the best way to communicate with public sector practitioners on the complex topic of extremism and the Prevent duty.