The legal definition of anti-social behaviour contained within the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is ‘behaviour that causes or is likely to cause alarm, distress or harassment’.
In practical terms, anti-social behaviour incorporates a wide range of activities from the relatively minor or inconsiderate, such as the occasional slamming of car doors late at night, to the far more serious such as a sustained campaign of harassment or constant loud music. Its impact can therefore range from a slight annoyance to a debilitating impact on an individual’s or community’s quality of life.
Doncaster is committed to tackling anti-social behaviour. The Safer Doncaster Partnership has made tackling anti-social behaviour one of its key objectives.
It is recognised that the causes of anti-social behaviour are complex in nature and consequently responses to it must be equally varied. Doncaster therefore adopts a partnership approach to engage all those with a role to play in tackling anti-social behaviour which in turn essentially incorporates three strands. These three strands are prevention/education, intervention and enforcement. Doncaster makes use of many different methods within each strand.
Examples in the sphere of prevention/education are: tenancy conditions written into St Leger Homes of Doncaster’s tenancy agreement relating to anti-social behaviour; diversionary activities for young people provided by, amongst others, the Youth Service, and presentations in schools including those delivered by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.
Examples of interventions are: structured programmes run by, amongst others, the Youth Inclusion Support Service to work with those young people at risk of offending and Acceptable Behaviour Contracts to agree the future conduct of an individual who has been involved in anti-social behaviour.
Enforcement should only be used when other mechanisms have either been attempted or due to the severity of the anti-social behaviour are inappropriate. Examples of enforcement are Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Injunctions, Designated Public Place Orders and ‘Crack House Closures’.
This approach recognises that anti-social behaviour has a significant impact on the creation of victims both directly, for example in the case of a noisy neighbour, and indirectly, for example as a result of the public being affected and inconvenienced by a vandalised bus shelter. Support for witnesses of anti-social behaviour is therefore key to this strategy.
Because dealing with anti-social behaviour is an issue of great importance to communities, this is reflected in the priorities set by central and local government, particularly through the Local Area Agreement (LAA). Performance in tackling anti-social behaviour is measured through set national and local indicators for local authorities and local authority partnerships as well as through Assessments of Policing and Community Safety (APACS). APACS includes a focus on promoting safety and public confidence and satisfaction.
Services in Doncaster have over recent years increasingly recognised the importance of tackling anti-social behaviour and in some instances previously separate local authority and police services have joined together to create co-ordinated and seamless delivery at a local level.
Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) are a key element in the response to anti-social behaviour. These teams at their core are made up of police officers, police community support officers and community safety officers and as such bring together in partnership at a grass roots level police and local authority staff. SNTs work closely with a wider family of partners including South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and St Leger Homes of Doncaster.
The SNTs are organised on neighbourhood lines and therefore there are 15 SNTs to mirror Doncaster’s neighbourhood management model.
SNTs aim to provide intelligence led approaches to resolving community concerns around crime, anti-social behaviour and other quality of life issues. As opposed to simply reacting to incidents in the community, SNTs adopt a problem solving approach which draws together an appropriate mix of measures of prevention, intervention and enforcement.
The public can contact their local SNT directly. Contact telephone numbers are publicly available. Alternatively, an issue raised by a member of the public through another channel, for example the Council’s service centres, will where appropriate, be redirected to the relevant SNT.
Certain types of anti-social behaviour are tackled by individual services. For example, abandoned vehicles are dealt with by the council’s FLAG Team (Fighting Litter, Abandoned Vehicles and Graffiti) and excessive noise by the Council’s Public Protection Team. The local authority also provides a number of specialised services including the Neighbourhood Response Team (working from 7pm to 6am to tackle a range of anti-social activity raised by the public and partners) and Party Patrol, dealing with noisy weekend parties.
Irrespective of whether a specific issue is dealt with by a sole agency or through the combined SNT structure, practical partnership working and information sharing between key agencies around anti-social behaviour affecting communities is ensured through Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGs) and Community Tension Assessment meetings. NAGs meet monthly and have representation from, amongst others, the police, Anti-Social Behaviour Officers, the Youth Inclusion Support Service, Families First, St Leger Homes, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and Environmental Health Officers.
Community Tension Meetings meet fortnightly and have representatives from the police, the local authority’s Community Safety and Area Support teams and communication officers from both the police and local authority.
Strategic direction of activity to deal with anti-social behaviour is provided by the 6 monthly Strategic Intelligence Assessment (SIA); Area Plans drawn up in partnership by senior local authority managers and SNT police Inspectors, and by the multi-agency Anti-Social Behaviour/Criminal Damage Theme Group. The latter meets monthly and reports through the Safer Doncaster Partnership structure.
The Government has placed increasing importance on robust responses to anti-social behaviour. In January 2006 the Respect Action Plan was launched heralding an approach to go ‘deeper, broader and further’ to supplement the primary focus which had until that time been concentrated on enforcement responses such as ASBOs/Dispersal Orders etc.
Doncaster worked closely with the Government prior to the launch of ‘Respect’ as an ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Action Area’. We are continuing to work with them following our successful application to become a Respect Action Area. As a Respect Action Area Doncaster is committed to taking forward the Respect Agenda and in particular:
Improving parenting programmes
Establishing a Family Intervention Project to tackle the most serious anti-social families
A continued and renewed commitment to using available tools and powers such as ASBOs
Ensuring openness and accountability through ‘Facing the People’
Promoting the sign up of social landlords to the Respect Housing Management Standard
