Pillar 3: Engagement
"This Antisocial Behaviour Framework sets the context for enhancing community engagement through early intervention and prevention. As Chair of the review's Community Engagement Sub-Group, I wholeheartedly endorse this new Antisocial Behaviour Framework - it's a valuable resource, which underpins a positive new approach, supported by successful practice from around Scotland and further afield."
Councillor Harry McGuigan, COSLA Spokesperson for Community Well-being and Safety and elected member for North Lanarkshire Council
Service User Case Study: Engagement
Bolt FM - 'Claire'
Claire has been involved with Bolt, a youth-led community radio station operated in association with Fablevision, since 2004 when she was 13. Growing up in the Blackhill area of Glasgow, she had an eventful upbringing. This has included dealing with an alcoholic parent, coping with the separation of her parents and helping her younger siblings to manage through all of the turmoil. Friday nights were regularly spent drinking with friends in the local park. Fights were a regular occurrence and Claire was well known to the local community police.
Claire got involved with Bolt when the youth group she was attending did some training with Bolt FM for one of their broadcasts. At Bolt she found a place where she had a voice and something different to get involved with: "It was great fun and the music was everything we wanted to listen tae "
When asked what she would have been doing if she was not involved with Bolt, Claire said: "I've seen people knifed in the street, people wae nae hope, nuthin' tae dae. A could be wan o' them. Wae Bolt there wis always sumthin' tae look forward to, an' if sumthin' was too hard then there was always someone to help."
Bolt's cultural planning approach enables everyone in the project to take ownership in the running of the organisation. Claire was very good at getting her peers involved and when asked if she wanted to be part of the Board of Directors she jumped at the chance: "Being involved wae the Board has given me skills and opportunities that I wouldnae normally have."
Claire is now training full time on the Bolt TV film course. She is breaking new ground, learning filming and production skills with a view to setting up her own enterprise company with other trainees. "I have learned loads and wae the qualifications from North Glasgow College I hope that I will have a different future tae many o' the others in my area."
One of the talents that was spotted on Bolt FM is Claire's incredible singing voice. She has been put in touch with one of Bolt's partners, Northern Rock Festival Group, which is able to help her develop her skills further. Claire volunteers with a local youth project, sharing the skills that she has learnt. "I feel that I've had a break and if I can help others then that's great."
Claire's story is not unique for Bolt FM. It has worked with almost all the young people in the local area and, because it is youth-led, young people who would not normally be attracted to youth projects want to take part. Many of the participants are well known to both social services and the police and agree that Bolt provides positive opportunities to do something different and exciting. When the first text message from a listener comes in, Bolt FM's young participants feel like they have gone from being a 'no-one' to a 'someone'. They no longer feel a need to prove their kudos in the local area, as the radio provides them with all the recognition they need.
Note: The name of the service-user has been changed to protect her identity and she is not represented in the photograph below.
5. Engagement
KEY POINTS
- Consultation with a sample of adults from areas hardest hit by antisocial behaviour ( ASB) revealed that ASB is under-reported. Of those who do report it, most are dissatisfied with the response they receive from local agencies, particularly when there is a poor initial response and lack of follow-up information.
- Communities need to take responsibility for their own actions and take steps to directly challenge and deal with local problems.
- Both adults and young people interviewed acknowledged a lack of respect between generations and thought agencies need to engage different generations in joint activity aimed at improving community life.
- There is confusion amongst the public about the roles of different agencies; about what interventions are used, when and how; and the role the public should play in tackling ASB.
- Community engagement activities should be used at the earliest opportunity and this activity should be focused around prevention and early and effective intervention.
- Agencies need to capture community voices, utilise community intelligence and realise that communities can offer useful insights when it comes to understanding community dynamics, identifying problems, developing workable solutions and judging the success of outcomes.
- The National Standards for Community Engagement (see the Further Information section at end of this chapter for a link) have not been sufficiently embedded in local approaches but should be the foundation upon which community engagement activities are based.
Introduction
5.1 The need to involve communities more usefully in developing local solutions to ASB problems was identified in the Government's 2007 Manifesto. It was also quickly identified as a key issue by the review's Expert Advisory Group ( EAG) and a sub-group, chaired by Councillor Harry McGuigan, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities ( COSLA) Spokesperson for Community Well-being and Safety and elected member for North Lanarkshire Council, was established.
5.2 The remit of the sub-group was to develop a set of strategic aims that would help direct national and local action aimed at empowering communities, providing community-based justice, supporting victims and witnesses and building the capacity of elected members to act as champions for the implementation of this Framework.
5.3 Demonstrating true partnership working under the new Concordat, a COSLA official was seconded into the Scottish Government to lead on this particular strand of the review.
Membership of the Community Engagement Sub-Group
Cllr Harry McGuigan, COSLA (Chair)
Mike Callaghan, COSLA
Paul Morron, Safeguarding Communities Reducing Offending ( SACRO)
David McKenna, Victim Support Scotland ( VSS)
Jim Andrews, ( VSS)
Neil Turnbull, Chief Fire Officers' Association Scotland ( CFOAS)
Jon Harris, COSLA
Fiona Barker, Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS)
Jim Neil, Scottish Community Safety Network ( SCSN)
Scottish Government ( leads for community safety, victims and witnesses, community planning, youth work, community regeneration, community justice, police capacity and management).
What the evidence tells us 15
- There remains a problem with the under-reporting of ASB and a general dissatisfaction with agency responses to complaints about ASB.
- The research suggests that under-reporting is due to four key factors:
- a perception that local agencies are not interested or are unable to do anything;
- a concern that reporting an incident would antagonise the perpetrators;
- fear of retaliation and;
- a deep-rooted culture of "keeping yourself to yourself" and a reluctance to 'grass' to the police about other residents.
- Among those who had reported ASB, there was frustration at the speed of initial response and the amount of evidence that enforcement authorities had to collect before action could be taken. However, some of the dissatisfaction with agency response seemed to be based upon unrealistic expectations that they alone can resolve deep-rooted problems.
- There was limited interest among the public in being involved in applying sanctions and sentences to those involved in ASB. This was because they were fearful of retribution, believed that it was the role of government agencies rather than the community and/or that their role would have little impact on rates of ASB.
- Other research suggests that a balance does need to be struck between the responsibilities of local agencies and those of residents. One resident stated:
"My concern is that more and more responsibility for the area is being taken away from us. Then some people feel they don't need to have any responsibility to look after the areas as someone else will come along and do it!"
- Young people interviewed believed that there is a lack of mutual respect between the generations and this was in part due to limited contact between the generations. One way of helping to bridge this was seen to be joint involvement in running community projects such as youth clubs.
- Despite the considerable efforts of local agencies to inform residents about new initiatives and legal powers, there continued to be a great deal of confusion within communities about the powers and interventions, the actions that agencies would be willing and able to take, what constituted an 'appropriate' complaint, and to which agency these should be reported.
Good Practice Example: Bolt FM
Bolt FM is a youth-led community radio station run by the Royston Road Project in the deprived north-east of Glasgow. The area is made up of distinct communities and gang violence between different territorial areas is a huge problem. Since its first broadcast in 2001, the project has empowered young people to own and operate their own radio station - giving them a unique voice in their community.
In partnership with Fablevision, Bolt FM runs a training programme for young people in DJ skills, arts development, drama and music, participation and broadcast radio production. These projects work in discrete territorial areas but are designed to enable young people to share experiences and break down barriers between geographical, sectarian and racial divides. The work has been highly effective in reaching some of the most troubled young people in the Royston Road area, and police-recorded ASB plummeted during the period of the broadcast in October 2006.
When asked about the impact on recorded youth crime during the October 2006 broadcast, Sergeant Gwen McEwan from Strathclyde police said: "unusually there has been no crime recorded during this period".
The project works closely with partners in a wide variety of organisations including North Glasgow College, local community police, drugs services, youth workers, community education groups, libraries and churches.
It has recently expanded to encompass Bolt TV - a video training programme to engage young people with an interest in film. There are plans to turn this into an internet broadcast enterprise company with young people at the helm.
Strategic Aims
5.4 The EAG agreed the following two key strategic aims, which are designed to encourage communities to be more usefully involved in the development of local solutions.
STRATEGIC AIM 1: Involving and empowering communities to address ASB.
To create a safer and stronger Scotland we need to ensure that community engagement (in relation to the ASB agenda) is carried out consistently and to the highest possible standard, to enable communities to be effectively involved and empowered at an early stage. This is vital because, when local people are actively engaged in tackling issues within their community, they can be empowered to help realise their community's potential.
This can be achieved through earlier involvement in the planning of services to tackle ASB, continuous involvement in the identification of local problems and the opportunity to participate and influence local decision-making through local capacity building. These activities within Community Planning Partnerships ( CPPs) should be overseen by local elected members with a designated remit to ensure all community groups engage, particularly young people, victims, ASB offenders and other "hard-to-reach" groups.
STRATEGIC AIM 2: Partnership working for communities and with communities.
Effective multi-agency action at a local community level is the key to ensuring that a broad range of approaches can be deployed against ASB issues. These should have an emphasis on early intervention and prevention through community participation, mediation and reassurance activities. This is instead of resorting to enforcement measures as a first course of action that do not always resolve underlying problems or can be more costly.
It is vital that CPPs engage local communities and deliver sustainable local solutions to local problems. These solutions should be informed by effective community engagement to ensure responses are appropriate and proportionate based on accurate information from communities. Therefore, all communities should be actively engaged by partner agencies through easily accessible means of community dialogue. Communities should feel a sense that their participation is welcome and that their concerns are taken seriously and acted upon. The outcomes of any action should be reported back to them.
5.5 The community engagement Strategic Aims recognise the importance of capturing community voices (including those of young people), utilising community intelligence and realising that communities have useful insights when it comes to understanding community dynamics, identifying problems, developing workable solutions and judging the success of outcomes.
5.6 Strategic Aim 1 builds upon the Involvement Standard within the National Standards for Community Engagement 16. It recognises that communities must be involved at the earliest possible stage in the design of their communities and in the planning of services to address ASB. They should also be given adequate time to make considered choices. It also recognises that methods of community engagement must be fit for purpose to address the specific problem and must be appropriate to the victims and witnesses of ASB.
5.7 It was clear during the review that while there was some awareness of the National Standards of Community Engagement they were not yet embedded in local service delivery and further work would be required to raise awareness of the principles the Standards set.
5.8 To help raise awareness of the Standards and ensure community engagement activities are coordinated and given an appropriate profile, the Scottish Government, COSLA and other review partners believe that elected members should help to facilitate such activities with the support of council officials. COSLA and the Improvement Service will provide training to elected members to help them fulfil their role as 'community champions'.
5.9 Strategic Aim 2 emphasises the importance of working in partnership with communities to solve underlying problems through prevention and early intervention. It also recognises the importance of providing sufficient information to communities to ensure that they feel they are a key partner in the process and that it is worth them reporting ASB and participating in action to tackle it.
5.10 If communities do not feel their concerns will be acted upon or are not told the results of actions they will feel their opinions are not valued and will be less inclined to engage in the upkeep of their communities. Communities will feel most reassured and engaged if they are consulted and contribute to decisions on how resources should be directed and on what positive outcomes community sentences should deliver in their areas.
Good Practice Example: Sighthill Library
Sighthill library is in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Edinburgh. In recent years, the library has been a focal point for young people's ASB, including graffiti, vandalism, under-age drinking and threatening behaviour to staff.
To combat this, a new model of working was introduced with emphasis placed on positive interaction with young people and on developing programmes of activities aimed at providing alternative pursuits to ASB.
Staff received specialist training and developed a programme of activities in partnership with organisations like the Safer Communities Unit, Edinburgh Council; Housing Department and Children and Families Department, Lothian and Borders Police and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
Projects included curriculum vitae ( CV) workshops and career sessions, a photography competition and "Reading the game ", an award winning football and literacy project for young men.
The result has been a significant reduction in the number of ASB incidents, resulting in a more accessible library service and a safer community. The work has had a dramatic impact on the lives of young people with whom the staff have been working. Several teenagers who received help on the preparation of their CVs and interview skills practice are now employed, and others are attending college.
In 2005, the library won one of the then Scottish Executive's Standing Up to Antisocial Behaviour Awards.
Donald Urquhart, Chair of the Scottish Community Safety Network, said at the time:
"This award reinforces the fact that dealing with antisocial behaviour is about much more than using enforcement powers. Preventing antisocial behaviour before it has a chance to develop is key to solving the problem."
Antisocial Behaviour Sphere of Community Engagement
5.11 The ASB Sphere of Community Engagement outlines the four stages of community involvement relating to the provision of information, consultation, participation and empowerment to assist in identifying where communities are now in terms of community engagement on ASB related issues.
5.12 The Sphere is based upon Arnstein's 'Ladder of Participation' (1969) and has been adapted to outline the different levels of community engagement from the extreme stage of no community input through consultation and participation to citizen empowerment, where the community make their own decisions on issues that affect them.
5.13 The Sphere also emphasises the ethos of our approach to community engagement as part of this Framework in terms of being based on the tenets of early intervention and prevention, as well as with working in partnership with communities.
National Actions and Local Recommendations
5.14 The following three National Actions and seven Local Recommendations on community engagement contribute to a total of 25 National Actions and 25 Local Recommendations across the Framework.
National Actions
1. Training for Elected Members:COSLA and the Improvement Service 17 will provide training and support to new and existing elected members from summer 2009 to encourage them to engage and facilitate in their role as "Community Champions", new approaches for involving citizens and communities in addressing ASB. These activities will be supported by local partner agency officers and be in line with the National Standards for Community Engagement.
2.Participatory Budgeting Pilot:The Scottish Government and COSLA will establish, by autumn 2009, a participatory budgeting pilot exercise across three CPP areas as part of the community empowerment agenda. Participatory budgeting should enable local community and neighbourhood groups to influence local action by helping to direct how small action funds are spent to develop solutions to local ASB problems. This pilot exercise will be supported by COSLA and the Scottish Government through the provision of training, guidance and match-funding.
3.Guidelines on Dispute Resolution:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners will consult, by autumn 2009, on the development of shared guidance aimed at encouraging local communities and agencies to build their capacity in addressing ASB problems through community engagement and empowerment activities. The focus will be on developing guidelines to promote positive behaviour and good neighbour relations, and to help agencies and neighbours resolve disputes at an early stage through the use of mediation and other forms of third-party intervention.
Local Recommendations
1. National Standards of Community Engagement:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners recommend that local agencies ensure that ASB services are compliant with the National Standards of Community Engagement. We recommend that, following the provision of national training and guidance in summer 2009, elected members should be responsible for overseeing community engagement activities and ensuring they are fit for purpose to address the problem at hand and to serve the community concerned.
2.Community Feedback:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners recommend that local partner agencies establish formal mechanisms to ensure participants in community engagement activities receive feedback on the outcome of their involvement and the wider community receives relevant feedback on the outcome of action to tackle ASB. These activities should be overseen by local elected members in line with the National Standards for Community Engagement.
3.Victim and Witness Services:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners recommend that local agencies strengthen their community engagement activities aimed at providing support and reassurance to victims of ASB, where required or appropriate. These activities, which should be undertaken in cooperation with existing providers of services to victims, could include the provision of information to individual victims, ensuring that all relevant staff in frontline services are appropriately trained, general public reassurance work (such as involvement in ASB initiatives and providing feedback on results) and, if appropriate, the implementation of marketing campaigns aimed at promoting local services for victims.
4.Community Reparation:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners recommend that local agencies involved in providing community reparation as part of criminal justice intervention should consult with local groups, organisations and victims, on the types of activities that would be appropriate to be undertaken. This will help deliver community empowerment and ensure that appropriate payback to the community and/or victim is provided by the offender.
5.Rationalised Engagement:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners recommend that local agencies rationalise their community engagement activities where appropriate to prevent consultation fatigue and promote the sharing of information and resources. As such, councils, police, fire and rescue and other partner agencies should work together to ensure that they are not separately asking the same questions of the same communities at different times in relation to ASB issues.
6.Early and Effective Engagement:The Scottish Government, COSLA and other national partners recommend that, wherever possible, local partner agencies involve communities at the earliest possible stage in the planning of services to give them adequate time to make considered choices. As part of these activities, local partner agencies should use a wide range of consultative mechanisms and innovative techniques, such as participatory appraisal, to engage with communities.
7.Participatory Budgeting:The Scottish Government, COSLA and the other national partners recommend that local partner agencies consider the merits of participatory budgeting, whereby local community and neighbourhood groups are empowered to help direct the distribution of small pots of funding to tackle and address local ASB problems. A small nationally-supported pilot exercise will help to inform these considerations.
Conclusion
5.15 Community engagement must be mainstreamed as an intrinsic part of the core work of all staff in local agencies but will take time and effort to develop. It is vital that communities are empowered to participate in the planning of local strategies and feel a sense of ownership for the process.
5.16 There is no 'one-size-fits all' approach to community engagement in relation to ASB. However, by engaging with communities early; giving them a say in the development of local strategies, the direction of resources, and the outcomes to be delivered by community sentences; ensuring victims and witnesses are supported; and ensuring communities are well informed about evidence and action, we will help to ensure communities retain a sense of pride for their area and engage actively in its upkeep.
Further information
Please note annexes are available in a separate document - see www.scotland.gov.uk