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Building strong, safe and attractive communities: Guidance for submissions
4 COMMUNITY BASED INITIATIVES TO TACKLE ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
18. What kinds of initiative will the Executive fund?
Funding will be available to prepare Neighbourhood Compacts and to provide resources for a specific range of interventions that may be required to make them effective. These interventions are:
- dedicated anti-social behaviour teams at community level and, exceptionally, at the local authority level
- intensive supervision;
- use of mediation to resolve disputes;
- supporting victims, witnesses and complainants; and
- Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs).
These are explained in more detail below.
We consider these interventions to be examples of existing good practice. But proposals need not be limited to these activities. We would consider alternative proposals of innovative approaches or indeed other proposals, which are not necessarily innovative, provided they are effective.
If local authorities plan to submit a bid for an alternative activity, then it must explain in its submission why it is not using the allocated funding for all of the five interventions listed above. An example of this might be where a local authority already has a well established and successful mediation service and sees no value in adding to it. The audits carried out by the Sociable Neighbourhood National Co-ordinator may assist local authorities in identifying gaps in their current response to anti-social behaviour.
The resource allocation for the first eight local authorities listed in Annex 3 includes an element of funding specifically for intensive supervision. Again, if those local authorities do not propose to use this funding for that purpose they must justify this in their submission.
19. Dedicated anti-social behaviour teams
Measures to tackle anti-social behaviour must be effectively co-ordinated to ensure speedy responses to complaints, more use of the available remedies and early intervention, to resolve neighbour disputes before they escalate. In many cases, this can be most effectively achieved by setting up dedicated anti-social behaviour teams, which will have responsibility for tackling anti-social behaviour at the community level. These teams should involve people from a range of agencies such as the police, housing managers and Community Wardens.
The Scottish Executive expects that local authorities will have already used their own resources to establish effective co-ordination at the local authority level. Where this has not been possible the funding may be used for the purpose of local authority level co-ordination providing this is not at the expense of improved arrangements at the community level. For example, local authorities and their partners may wish to appoint an anti-social behaviour co-ordinator or to second a police officer to work in a central team, but the Executive expects that the bulk of the funding should be used for community-based measures.
20. Intensive supervision
This requires direct intervention with families which are anti-social to correct their anti-social behaviour by providing intensive intervention and supervision. It could be achieved by using a single building to house all the tenants who require support or by having a dispersed programme throughout a local authority area.
Example: The Dundee Families Project aims to support families who are threatened with eviction (or following eviction) due to their anti-social behaviour. The key aim of the project is to assist families to develop and maintain skills to enable them to sustain a tenancy in mainstream housing. The Dundee Families Unit employs 12 staff from a variety of backgrounds. Three types of service are offered: - outreach preventive work: an early intervention service which aims to prevent tenancy breakdown;
- residential core accommodation: intensive work within furnished accommodation with on site staff;
- residential dispersed accommodation: less intensive support in self-contained furnished accommodation.
- The work with families includes development of parenting skills, cooking skills, budgeting skills and work with preschool children.
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21. Mediation services
Mediation can be used to resolve disputes between neighbours at an early stage before they escalate into more serious behaviour. It also empowers those involved to resolve problems themselves. Mediation can also be effective at dealing with more serious problems.
Example: East Lothian Council recognised early that there was scope to use mediation for low key neighbour nuisance cases. An independent SACRO managed Community Mediation Service is funded from the Housing Revenue Account and a limited amount of social work funding. It is based in Port Seton but works throughout the county. It is linked to the very busy Edinburgh Service, which was the first in Scotland. To emphasise East Lothian's multi-agency approach to anti-social behaviour and minimising conflict the Mediation Service's Advisory Committee has representatives from police, housing and environmental services serving on it. |
22. Support for witnesses - hotlines
Supporting victims, witnesses and complainants is crucial when tackling anti-social behaviour. It gives local residents the confidence and ability to make their concerns known and then provides them with the support to continue living in the community while a case is ongoing. To achieve this, local authorities could consider the use of hotlines. These could be tied in to specialised anti-social behaviour teams.
Example: In Renfrewshire Council the role of supporting and protecting witnesses is undertaken by ASI'ST as there is a 24 hour service for "registered" cases. As well as the 24 hour telephone line ASI'ST are pro-active and visit witnesses and complainants involved in live cases on a fortnightly basis. At any one time this could involve visiting around 45 "live" cases. Mobile telephones are issued to witnesses and complainants if needed and any physical security requirements would be referred to Area Managers in the neighbourhood offices to action. |
23. Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs)
ABCs can be used where individuals or families have been responsible for anti-social behaviour. This approach allows individuals to understand exactly what changes in behaviour are required.
Example: Edinburgh City Council's Housing Department has introduced Acceptable Behaviour Contracts in the South of the city where there were severe problems with youths causing damage and causing feelings to run high in the community. Both the police and Housing Department identified the youths causing the most problems in the area. Information was shared and a history was compiled on each perpetrator. Time was set aside for joint training involving professional police instructors, the in-house Housing solicitor and local staff. Twelve of the worst families were identified as suitable for piloting Acceptable Behaviour Contracts. Initially the parents and the youths involved were asked into the Housing Department to meet with the local Community Sergeant and the Housing Officer. Any that failed to show were immediately visited in their homes. The initial meetings concentrated on explaining to the youth and their parents what anti-social behaviour was, the allegations against the youth and the consequences crime and disorder had on the wider community. Parents were advised that they were financially liable for any damage to council property. The focus was on the preventing the problems recurring and not on legal remedies. The signing of ABCs was discussed and examples left with the families. At the second appointment the ABCs were signed by the parents and youths. Some families agreed to a curfew for their children and signed statements with the police allowing them to pick up any child from the street who was out after curfew and take them home to their parents or to the police station. Two of the tenants refused to sign and Notices of Repossession were served on them for anti-social behaviour. Social Work staff were kept informed and agreed to be involved as appropriate. To date, there have been breaches of the ABCs by two families. This is considered a success as the 12 families picked for the pilot caused more than 80% of the crime and disorder on the estate. With the families' co-operation, additional support has been negotiated for them through the Neighbourhood Support Team. |
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