Angus Macdonald. Anti-social behaviour, housing management
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Q: As part of an anti-social behaviour customer experience review I would like to seek input on the following. How do other landlordsdeliver their ASB services? If they have specialist ASB services, what do those services deal with? What are the boundaries? How arethe teams split?
A: Angus Macdonald The formation of specialist landlord ASB services is relatively recent and we are still learning from each other about what really works.
It is difficult to give specific advice because this may change after taking into account things such as the geographical spread and nature
of the homes managed, the capability of existing staff and the effectiveness of local inter-agency working.
The questioner is covering the issues comprehensively and I would add that, as is the case with any new service, they should design it around local circumstances in full consultation with stakeholders.
This may also be an opportunity to lift the quality and level of partnership working with local agencies by collectively identifying any gaps in enforcement, rehabilitation and prevention.
If you have a strongly performing local authority and police service, this will affect the design and resourcing of your service. You could find yourself setting an example locally and improving other agencies’ performance.
If I was to choose one single area which is critical to the success of an ASB service, it is the referral process between a generic service and the ASB team or officer. All too frequently, I come across new services that have been set up with a lack of clarity about how and when cases are referred to the ASB team.
This lack of clarity results in housing officers referring all ASB cases to a team which will not be able to cope with the volume of work.
It is for this reason that referrals to the ASB team should be prioritised according to their seriousness. That said, housing officers should still be involved in the process and given specific tasks or responsibilities in relation to the case.
I emphasise the point that housing officers should be involved - in even the most serious cases - because their credibility in the community soars if they are seen as part of the team that resolved a problem. This is one of the reasons that I would not normally consider removing all responsibilities from generic housing officers in resolving anti-social behaviour.
Angus Macdonald is a housing management and anti-social behaviour consultant
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