Tenant Inspectors focus on the antisocial behaviour service

Recently the team of Tenant Inspectors have been looking into how we deal with antisocial behaviour in council neighbourhoods. Thanks to their observations and recommendations, we plan to implement important changes to ensure all residents feel safe and valued.

During their deep dive into the antisocial behaviour (ASB) service, the Tenant Inspectors interviewed council staff, surveyed tenants, established tenant focus groups, liaised with the Mediation Service, and checked performance statistics.

Following their investigation, the team discovered that:

• Tenants and staff are equally frustrated about the ongoing nature of ASB
• Dealing with the issue is becoming increasingly difficult as more public services, including the council and the Police, are stretched
• There is not enough publicity of the successful action taken to reduce ASB
• Council staff need to get better at following up ASB action plans 
• More work is required to help tenants know what is and isn’t classed as ASB
• Not enough progress has been made since their last ASB report in 2010

“Antisocial behaviour can be a real blight on a community”, says Tim, one of the team of Tenant Inspectors, “It can quickly escalate so it is important that tenants understand what is classed as ASB, how to report it and know that all reports are taken seriously”.

“The way the council deals with ASB is really important, and our investigation came about after it topped a poll of different areas of the housing service that tenants wanted to see scrutinised.

“During the investigation it was striking that, although there are effective procedures in place, overall tenants feel that the council ‘doesn’t care’ about ongoing ASB issues. We feel this is mainly down to poor communication, and by making some changes to the way cases are dealt with could ease the situation.”

The team of Tenant Inspectors took their findings straight to the top and recently handed over their report to Director of Housing, Jamie Brenchley.

Recommendations

Their recommendations include:

Making policy and procedures more tenant friendly

The inspectors have already shortened and simplified the ASB procedure on the website and have suggested a more reader-friendly version of the satisfaction survey and the standard letter sent when a case is closed. With a 5% reduction in the number of ASB reports over the last 5 years, more work is needed to ensure reporting ASB is as straightforward as possible.

Better publicising enforcement action

79% of tenants surveyed said they felt the council does not effectively tackle ASB, mainly because ‘no action is taken’. To help raise confidence and encourage tenants to report an issue, the inspectors recommended better publicising of enforcement action taken. This includes more regular reporting of ASB cases in Tenants’ Link to show residents that the council does take action, which can ultimately end in eviction. 

Better communication between council and complainant

A more personal service would better support complainants. Plus, reports need to be addressed timely and staff need to be honest, sympathetic, and clear about whether the situation is classed as ASB from the start. This will better help manage expectations of the outcome to be achieved. The inspectors suggested the introduction of a dedicated officer to deal with and respond to ASB.

Future updates and get in touch

Check out future issues of Tenants Link for updates on how the council is responding to and implementing the inspectors’ recommendations and suggestions.

This deep dive into ASB is the latest report by the volunteer Tenant Inspectors. Previous investigations (and subsequent recommendations and service improvements) have focused on Decent Neighbourhoods, Welfare Rights & Money Advice, estate walkabouts, the block rep scheme, customer care, council housing stigma, and fly tipping. If you would like to join the team to put an area of the housing service under the spotlight – and to work with us to make improvements where needed – please get in touch.