Eight areas of the country identified as potential breeding grounds for violent extremism are to start government-funded “intervention programmes” to prevent susceptible individuals being radicalised.

The programmes represent a new approach to fighting Islamist terrorism, with police, social services, housing officers and teachers instructed on being alert to suspicious behaviour.

Any concerns about people with whom they come into contact can then be reported to a police co-ordinator or community leader involved in the programme, who will also be available to families who may have concerns about a relative.

Cross-checks are carried out on the individual against the national security database. If the threat posed is considered low, police or community workers, using mentoring and discussion groups, work to coax the individual away from influences in their lives that risk turning them into active extremists.

Senior officers told The Times that the programmes, known as the Channel Project, have been adopted with the realisation that they “cannot arrest ourselves out of the problem” of stemming the growth of home-grown terrorist sympathisers around Britain.

After positive feedback from two pilot schemes for the project, which have been running over the past year in Lancashire and Lambeth, South London, they will now be extended to a further eight key areas within weeks. They include five sites in West Yorkshire, identified as being a hub for terror activity in recent years.

Officials emphasised that the programmes were not intelligence-gathering operations, but about preventing a problem from developing – similar to early intervention with youth crime and drugs.

“This is about supporting places which already recognise they have a problem with extremism and giving them the opportunity to do something about it,” Ian Larnder, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ leader on the project, said. “It is about identifying those people at risk and working with them to move them away from where they appear to be heading and prevent them becoming extremists.

“It may be that theological discussion is needed or they need mentoring. The project reflects the need to address the problems in our communities. We are asking the community to work with the police and statutory agencies to stop people that have been identified as displaying strange behaviour becoming violent extremists.”

Each site has a local project co-ordinator, usually from the borough police unit, who is responsible for garnering support for the project by word of mouth. Toaha Qureshi, one of the community leaders helping with the project in Lambeth, said concerns had been reported to him by parents, imams and teachers, and he had already had many successes.

Mr Larnder said that the police had not sought publicity for the Channel Project, which has £3 million funding from the Home Office over three years, while it was at a pilot stage. He added that it was also working with existing community groups that were already identifying potential problem youngsters.

Times Recommends

• Time-worn Freddie gives up Test matches
• Brighton company 'involved in cyber attack'
• The art of survival: it's all in the mind