The Prevent programme to identify and stop potential extremists is working, a senior police officer leading the scheme has said.

Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police and national policing lead on Prevent, said the nature of prevention schemes meant tangible results were hard to show.

But he said the plans were proving effective in managing community tensions while also identifying potentially problematic individuals.

This week a new duty on all public sector staff to look out for signs of extremism came into effect and Sir Peter said broadening Prevent outside of the police had helped.

He acknowledged the scheme faced problems when it was first started and was "too police dominated".

Sir Peter told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "When Prevent started, it was very much when there was a lot of ill feeling about British foreign policy - but that's changed.

"Every single day our officers, our community support officers, are out there working with local groups, particularly groups in Mosques. We have a very active Muslim police association, very active during Ramadan, so we are skilled in how we deal with community relations and tensions in the community.

"We absolutely understand this is a difficult issue. It exists within often a difficult narrative in the media about Muslims, and the way they are perceived.

"We have to try and deal with it, and we are caught in the middle of that, that's why as I say we are building on its strengths and really welcoming the Government's attempt to widen that programme."

He added: "It's about having an open conversation... about the rights of women and how cultural practices and religious practice fit into a pluralistic society.

"There are lots in religious communities, including the Muslim community, who realise that needs to be addressed to help young people grow both with their religious beliefs but absolutely in a modern democracy where there are people from all sorts of other backgrounds.

"I think schools are already very good at this and deal with that in very diverse areas where they are having to deal with a mixed school community and pick up those sort of tensions but at the same time deal with young people who may be struggling to make that connection with what their faith says and what's expected in a modern democracy."

Sir Peter continued: "The important thing is the way we approach this, that we stand together and we don't end up with a narrative that is sort of 'them and us' between the rest of the community and the Muslim community.

"We recognise lots of Muslim parents are battling with this issue, as we all are, in terms of how do young people deal with issues on the internet, whether that's extreme political ideologies, extreme sexual material and all that stuff which is now coming into children's bedrooms because of the impact of social media."

Sir Peter said it was important to recognise different parts of the country had differing levels of integration within communities.

He compared Manchester, where people from different communities work side by side on a day to day basis, to other parts of the country where communities keep their distance.

He said: "We also have to recognise there are extremists out there who want to exploit that and again that's why it is not just a Muslim issue - we have issues about right wing views, and right wing extremists at the same time."