Tenants review Anti-social Behaviour procedure

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In March, we met with residents to gain their views and understand their experiences on reporting anti-social behaviour (ASB) to the Council.

We wanted to understand what tenants identify as ASB, the barriers to reporting ASB, and how we can improve our communication with complainants.

Participants in the review told us what was important to them when they report ASB to the Council, which included the following themes:

  • Accessibility
    • Ensuring it was clear who to report to and how to report it. For example, sometimes ASB should be reported to Police rather than the Council. To ensure that reporting was something accessible, we need to make sure residents know who to speak to
  • Remaining anonymous
    • Some residents were concerned about the repercussions should it be found out if they reported ASB. Therefore, they wanted reassurance to know that the Council will not identify them.
  • Communication
    • Residents must get acknowledgement when the complaint is received. However, they understood that depending on the severity of the complaint when the amount of time the complaint gets addressed may differ.
  • Treatment and support
    • Residents must feel like they’re being taken seriously and offer compassion and support for the victims. Any different may make the resident feel unheard and discourages them to report again in the future.

We found that a lot of this information may be because of a lack of communication. Therefore, the Council are looking into creating a guide for ASB, which residents can refer to should they experience a disturbance.

Residents contributed to what should be included in this guide, to ensure complainants expectations are managed

  • Who to report ASB to, depending on the incident they experienced
  • Knowledge on how ASB complaints are dealt with
  • When they can expect an update from the Council
  • Reassurance on reporting ASB anonymously

The Council will continue to work with residents on this guide, to ensure it is easy to use and holds the information needed for our tenants. 

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