Making it easier to report Anti-Social Behaviour

Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Awareness Week Series - Part 4

As part of ASB Awareness Week, our housing management team has curated a series of articles which give practical advice and insight into four core themes surrounding ASB, with a focus on making our communities safer. Part 4 focuses on: Making it easier to report Anti-Social Behaviour. If you would like details of tomorrow's webinar around ‘making communities safer’, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Part 1 of the series, Tackling trouble together: supporting victims of anti-social behaviour was published on Monday 30 June. 

Part 2 of the series, Delays in the Civil Justice System - is it time for a specialist Housing Court? was published on Tuesday 1 July. 

Part 3 of the series, One Single, National Information Sharing Agreement was published yesterday on Wednesday 2 July.

It has never been more important to ensure that tenants and residents can report anti-social behaviour quickly and conveniently. Many victims of anti-social behaviour will not report it because they either are unaware how they can or feel that their complaints will not be taken seriously or dealt with effectively. The Regulator for Social Housing is now reviewing the performance of Registered Providers in complying with the consumer standards and ensuring that tenants can communicate effectively with their landlord is a key requirement under those standards.

Under the Neighbourhood and Community Standard which landlords are expected to meet, landlords are required to, amongst other things, ensure that anti-social behaviour and hate incidents can be easily reported and that tenants are kept informed about the progress of their case.

As my colleague Emily Hope wrote in Part 1 of this series, it is important that Registered Providers have clear reporting procedures which make it easier for victims to raise concerns, response protocols giving step-by-step guidance on timely and appropriate interventions and victim support strategies.

The following are some practical tips to ensure that reporting anti-social behaviour is as easy as possible:

1. Offer multiple, easy ways to report anti-social behaviour

Some Registered Providers direct tenants to use an online form whilst others may have a dedicated phone line. Other RPs will have Neighbourhood Officers or other staff working within their communities who tenants can report complaints to. You should ensure that there are easy to use means of reporting anti-social behaviour which enable all tenants to raise complaints quickly and effectively.

2. Make sure tenants know how to report anti-social behaviour

Many tenants do not report incidents of anti-social behaviour as they feel like they do now know how to. You should consider methods of ensuring that tenants have this information, for example this could be via targeted letter or flyer drops in those areas where anti-social behaviour is prevalent or by giving this information to all new tenants at sign-up.

3. Consider whether to allow anti-social behaviour to be reported anonymously

Whilst many Registered Providers may already allow incidents of anti-social behaviour to be reported anonymously, you may want to review your procedures if they do not allow for anonymous reporting. Whilst it has its limitation, particularly from an evidential point of view, evidence from anonymous sources can give Registered Providers an indication of what is currently happening within a particular location and take initial steps to investigate. Complainants may feel more comfortable, particularly where there is serious or violent anti-social behaviour, reporting this anonymously and so this is something else you may want to consider.

4. Ensure complaints are recorded and investigated effectively

Whilst Registered Providers need tenants and other witnesses to report anti-social behaviour in order to take action, RPs also need to ensure that there are robust procedures in place to ensure that complaints are recorded appropriately and investigated efficiently. It is more likely that complainants will report anti-social behaviour if they feel that those complaints will be taken seriously and dealt with effectively.

These are just a few things that could be considered to ensure that anti-social behaviour can be reported as easily and efficiently as possible by complainants. You should ensure that any reporting procedures are easily accessible for complainants and those are signposted and highlighted effectively.

If you would like to discuss #MakingCommunitiesSafer in further detail or would like to be added to our mailing list for further bulletins and webinars, you can contact our housing management team.