Government could adopt Cobalt ASB pilot

The system was pioneered by a group of agencies in Liverpool - including 5,500-home Cobalt Housing - to rate the likelihood of victims or witnesses being intimidated.

Officials from the Home Office, police, local authorities and housing associations, are understood to be looking at the scheme as part of new guidance on working with vulnerable people in anti-social behaviour cases.

The guidance follows the death of Ms Pilkington, from Leicestershire, who killed herself and her 18-year-old disabled daughter, Francecca Hardwick, in October 2007 after suffering years of abuse from youths.

The scorecard system is used by Cobalt Housing’s ‘making waves’ scheme. Victims and witnesses are visited by police officers who are part of the project team and given a low, medium or high score based on the level of risk they face.

Officers decide what help the victims and witnesses need such as rehousing, security devices or other victim support.

Cobalt Housing contacts the agencies involved to check they are providing the right levels of support. Officers from making waves, which includes staff from the police, fire, Cobalt Housing, and Liverpool Council’s City Safe project, stay in weekly contact with the victim or witness and regularly review their risk assessment to pick up changes in their needs.

Paul Ellison, anti-social behaviour manager at Cobalt, said: ‘I think they hope to cascade it [the score card] through other organisations as best practice.’ Hinckley and Bosworth Council, the landlords of one of the families accused of harassing Ms Pilkington, has admitted better sharing of information would have seen more concerted action to protect the family. It said that it had since improved its systems.

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