Anti-Social Behaviour

Anti-social behaviour doesn’t just make life unpleasant. It holds back the regeneration of disadvantaged areas and creates an environment where more serious crime can take hold. Reducing anti-social behaviour is therefore crucial to making neighbourhoods better places to live.

The Home Office anti-social behaviour website gives more details about the different types on anti-social behaviour and initiatives which can be used to deal with them, along with details of how to report anti-social behaviour.

Latest news on anti-social behaviour is included in the 'community safety latest news' section on the Community Safety main page, which is updated weekly.

The Home Office also produces a quarterly newsletter, ASB Focus.  This is designed specifically for practitioners who are tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour on the front line, with the aim of sharing good practice, policy information and details of initiatives taking place throughout the country.

Progress on Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 created new powers and incentives to assist local authorities in dealing with the range of anti-social behaviours. A national campaign “Together” was launched as an accompaniment to this legislation.

The Government’s Respect Action Plan, published in January 2006, built on this successful drive to tackle anti-social behaviour and sought to address the deeper underlying causes of unacceptable behaviour.

Since then there has been a huge response from practitioners and local communities determined to tackle, not tolerate, anti-social behaviour. Powers and tools (increased under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) have been widely used, demonstrating that barriers and obstacles have been overcome and are no longer an excuse for inaction.

In December 2006 The National Audit Office produced a report which examined the work of the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit since 2003. This study found that 65% of people stopped behaving anti-socially after one intervention, 86% stopped after two and 93% stopped after three.

Perceptions of anti-social behaviour have also improved.  15% of people felt that levels of anti-social behaviour in their areas were high in 2009 to 2010, compared with 21% in 2002 to 2003.

Government's Continuing Commitment to Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour

Cutting Crime A New Partnership 2008 – 2011, the current 3 year crime strategy, identifies "continued pressure on anti-social behaviour" as a key area for focus over the period 2008-11.

Public Service Agreement (PSA) 23 is part of the new crime strategy.  Priority Action 3 is: Tackle crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour issues of the greatest importance in each locality, increasing public confidence in the local agencies involved in dealing with these issues.  This is measured by:

• public confidence in local agencies inovlved in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour
  
• the percentage of people perceiving anti-social behaviour as a problem.

In October 2009 the Home Secretary emphasised his commitment to tackling, not tolerating, ASB and announced a package of measures to improve the collective response to ASB.  This includes:

• stepping up action on tackling ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) breaches
• encouraging local areas to set up and publicise minimum service standards by March 2010
• providing more practical help to victims and witnesses of ASB
• providing targeted support and challenge to Community Safety Partnership areas where more than 24% of the population think anti-social behaviour is a big problem

Building on this package of measures, a joint announcement was made in November 2009 by the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, and John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.  A further £10 million has been made available (£862,000 in the South East) to support action on the ground.  Examples of how the extra money may be spent include:

• training for frontline staff
• environmental clean up campaigns in selected neighbourhoods to demonstrate quick, visible difference to local residents
• support for community led projects to engage young people
• offering support for victims of ASB

In December 2009 a further £2.5 million funding was announced specifically to assist in developing neighbourhood partnerships to improve public confidence in dealing with crime and ASB issues that matter the most in neighbourhoods.  Known as the Accelerating Neighbourhood Partnership Fund this has complementary aims with the Communities and Local Government's £10 million support package.  The South East will receive over £450,000.

On 1 March 2010 Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to protect funding for front-line policing and announced new legislation to combat anti-social behaviour.

The new legislation to improve Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) will include:

• clear national standards for ASBOs
• a faster application processes
• tougher action when orders are breached

Victims of the worst cases of anti-social behaviour will also be given a 'guarantee of protection', including support obtaining an injunction and legal fees paid where an agency has let them down.

The Prime Minister also said the Government will increase public accountability at all levels of the police. New national standards for policing will include commitments that:

• neighbourhood police should spend at least 80 per cent of their time on the beat
• non-emergency inquiries will receive a response within 24 hours
• monthly beat meetings will be held to discuss priorities

Further information is available on the Number 10 website.

On 9 March 2010, the Home Secretary set out plans to toughen existing laws to protect the public from dangerous dogs. These plans include extending dangerous dogs laws to cover all places including private property, giving police and councils more powers, and the introduction of compulsory micro-chipping for dogs.

The Home Secretary also:

• reiterated the importance of every local authority implementing local minimum standards to ensure that all complaints about antisocial behaviour are dealt with speedily and professionally
• called on all agencies to give every victim of antisocial behaviour the name of the case worker who will deal with their complaint, and keep them updated
• called for the most serious cases of intimidation and harassment to be escalated with much more urgency than they are at present
• announced a consultation on a nationwide ban on drinking alcohol, or carrying an open can or bottle of alcohol on buses
  

A consultation on tackling dangerous dogs was launched on 9 March 2010, details of which can be found on the defra website. 

Role of Local Partners

Tackling anti-social behaviour is a key priority for local communities who regularly identify this as one of the most important issues in their area. Virtually all the Local Area Agreements (LAAs) in the South East reflect this priority, either through targets to reduce perceptions in ASB directly (National Indicator 17), or to give communities confidence that this is being targeted properly by the police and local authority (National Indicator 21).

Tackling anti-social behaviour effectively - particularly persistent offenders - depends on strong local partnerships that have the expertise to address complex problems within communities.

It is therefore essential that local partnerships have in place robust plans and procedures to tackle anti-social behaviour.  In particular there is a need for co-ordinated working by local agencies to ensure that local people can report ASB quickly and easily rather than be passed from one agency to another.

Guidance on working in partnership to tackle anti-social behaviour, developing an anti-social behaviour strategy, use of enforcement tools and powers, use of supportive interventions, community engagement, and many other aspects of tackling anti-social behaviour can be found on the Home Office Anti-Social Behaviour website. 

In order to improve perceptions of anti-social behaviour and increase public confidence it is essential that Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) actively listen to local concerns, take action to deal with them, and tell communities what action has been taken and the outcome. 

The Home Office has set up the ASB Action website.  This allows the public to see information on some of the work their area is carrying out to tackle ASB.  It also gives all areas a better understanding of how their use of tools and powers compares to other CSPs by allowing areas to benchmark against CSPs of a similar size and demographic.

 

The ASB Actionline provides free advice for practitioners tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour.  Telephone: 0870 220 2000 E-mail: actionline@bss.org

 

 

 
Government Office for the South East's Role

GOSE offers support to Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) and other organisations seeking to tackle anti-social behaviour and improve perceptions.  We provide information such as guidance, good practice, training opportunities, latest policy developments, to a wide range of partners in the region via the GOSE Community Safety webpages and the 'Community Safety Latest News' updates. 

We negotiate targets for anti-social behaviour indicators for the South East areas in the Local Area Agreements.

We actively try to identify opportunities and overcome barriers at local, regional and national levels to improve how we deal with anti-social behaviour in the South East.  For example:

• We developed a self assessment questionnaire for CSPs to rate their performance on different aspects of dealing with anti-social behaviour and perceptions and used the results from this to identify areas where GOSE could provide more support.
• We link with other Government Offices and the Home Office Anti-Social Behaviour and Youth Crime Unit to highlight issues in the South East, influence national policy and share good practice.
• We work with other agencies in the South East, for example, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Youth Justice Board, Local Criminal Justice Boards and Registered Social Landlords to improve our regional response to anti-social behaviour.
• GOSE's Community Safety team works closely with other teams in GOSE, e.g. the Children and Learners Directorate, the Stronger Communities Team, to ensure that regional policy has maximum impact on dealing with anti-social behaviour and that relevant information on various aspects of dealing with ASB e.g. activities for young people and community engagement is available to local partners working on anti-social behaviour.
• GOSE links into existing sub-regional anti-social behaviour networks to offer support and encourage the sharing of good practice across the region.
• We work with the Home Office to deliver regional events and provide targeted support to priority partnerships.

Training Courses and Providers

In response to requests from practitioners, GOSE has put together a list of training courses and providers that we are aware of.  Please note, however, that GOSE is not in a position to recommend or provide quality assurance for any external training courses or providers.

Please see our related pages to find information on guidance and reports, and good practice.

For information on Youth Policy in the South East, including briefing on Family Intervention Projects (FIPs), Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and positive activities, please visit GOSE's Children & Young People webpages.