The new “Respect – ASB Charter for Housing”

Introduced by government in 2006, the original Respect Standard for Housing Management played an important role in driving up performance in both preventing and effectively tackling anti-social behaviour. Over 500 social landlord signatories are a clear testimony to its success over the last five years. ASB continues to be a key issue for landlords, tenants and communities, and when the housing minister announced in January 2011 that the Standard would be passed from government to sector ownership, CIH, SLCNG and HouseMark were delighted to be asked to take up the baton.

Sponsored by ReACT the resulting Charter was officially launched to an enthusiastic audience by CIH Chief Executive Sarah Webb at the CIH Annual Conference in Harrogate on 22^nd June.  The Charter has been developed through wide consultation, and is essentially an updating of the Standard. Indeed, following the consultation process it was decided to retain the ‘Respect’ name, it being well-recognised and understood within the sector. The Charter continues to be voluntary, and is a key part of the new, co-regulatory approach within housing. It should be noted that the Charter is not intended to be a wider community safety charter – it is about landlords’ ASB services. However, the importance of partnership working in improving outcomes for service users is acknowledged throughout the Charter.

Signing up to RESPECT  – FAQs

How do we sign up to the Charter?

Signing up to the charter is by self-assessment and is easy. Just complete all the details on the online form on the CIH website by following this link http://www.cih.org/respectstandard/signup.htm and submit it electronically. CIH will send you an email confirmation immediately on receipt of the form and will follow this up with your certificate which you will receive by email within 5 working days.

What do we get?

CIH will issue you with a certificate which you can copy and display around your organisation and also send you an electronic version of the new Respect – ASB Charter for Housing logo.

How can we use the logo?

That is up to you. For example, you may want to include it on your letterheads, website, newsletters etc to demonstrate your ongoing commitment to tackle ASB.

Do we need to meet all of the Charter’s Commitments and Building Blocks?

No, the Charter is intended to be a framework for you to use and adapt to your local circumstances and priorities. It is recognised that there will be a wide range of diverse organisations who will want to sign up to the Charter and, as such, not all of the Commitments and Building Blocks will be appropriate. The aim is for you to work with your tenants to understand what issues are important to them, and work towards ultimately achieving this.

Do we need to re-sign up if we are already signed up to the former Respect Standard for Housing Management?

Yes. Although you will recognise quite a lot of the old Respect Standard for Housing Management in the new Charter, there are a lot of different things in it too – including two completely new commitments. Also, the focus has completely changed from the old Standard – the Charter is now owned by you rather than delivered to you by government. By re-signing you are reaffirming your commitment to your tenants to put tackling ASB at the heart of what you do – re-signing provides a good opportunity to promote the great things you are already doing too.

Can we sign up in partnership with other organisations?

Yes, it is entirely up to you whether you sign up individually or with partners. Just make it clear how you want CIH to present this information on your certificate.

Can we get external accreditation of our sign-up to the Charter?

Yes – the HouseMark and SLCNG ASB Accreditation service does exactly that – it provides an external, critical challenge of your self-assessment against the Charter, and verifies independently whether you are meeting the Commitments and Building Blocks. Support can also be provided to help get you there. More than 25 organisations have already achieved ASB Accreditation. For more information go to the CIH, HouseMark or SLCNG website.

How long is our sign-up to the Charter valid for?

The Charter will be valid on an on-going basis unless there is a fundamental need to change it significantly. CIH aim to work with you to ensure that the Charter remains up-to-date, outcome focused and relevant so it may be tweakedk it from time to time. However, there will be no requirement to re-sign again following minor changes.

With grateful acknowledgments to CIH.

By Mike Blomer MBE 

Related articles

• Respect Standard to be launched at Harrogate (reactasb.wordpress.com)

Respect Standard to be launched at Harrogate

I am sure that most ASB practitioners will be well aware of the current review of the Respect Standard, and that responsibility for it has passed from DCLG to the housing sector. CIH, together with the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group and HouseMark has consulted widely and will launch the new version called “Respect – the ASB charter for housing”, at the forthcoming CIH Annual Conference in Harrogate.

The launch, sponsored by ReACT, will take place on Wednesday 22^nd June at 11.30 in Queens Suite 1 with the session title “Working through…..ASB and Respect”. Delegates to the conference and exhibition visitors are able to attend without pre-registration and others can register by contacting julia.wiles@housemark.co.uk

The expectation is that a large number of housing professionals will attend.

ReACT will be sharing stand 22 in Hall A with the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group at the conference. Please call in for a chat with Kate and Mike and hear about the all new ReACT version 4.

By Mike Blomer MBE

Related articles

• Review of the Respect standard (reactasb.wordpress.com)

What does the future hold for tackling ASB?

Low level anti-social behaviour, such as graffiti, form the majority of complaints. How will they be dealt with in the future? (Image by ukslim via Flickr)

By Mike Blomer

Given the unprecedented number of Government announcements on future changes to the way social housing landlords are expected to deal with anti social behaviour, it is no wonder that practitioners are getting in a bit of a tizzy.

From what I have seen, the majority view the proposed abolition of ASBOs with favour, believing they have outlived their usefulness, and that there are more effective tools available to deal with serious cases.

 I am also encouraged by the greater emphasis on identifying the risk of harm – not only to victims of anti social behaviour – but also, potentially, to witnesses and even perpetrators. At a recent CIH conference (Landlords Tools and Powers to Tackle ASB – 5^th August 2010), Chief Inspector Jim Baker explained the new policy of West Mercia Police on how complaints are to be dealt with. In particular, they are identifying the risk, impact, harm and vulnerability of people who become involved in complaints, in whatever capacity. Can we take heart from the fact that Paul West, Chief Constable of West Mercia Police is the ACPO spokesman on ASB and that the initiatives introduced in his area will be replicated nationally?

Meanwhile the pilot projects on the sharing of information continue and the Police Reform and Responsibility Bill is now out for consultation. Note that the consultation period has been restricted to just 8 weeks and covers a substantial part of the main holiday period.

Is ‘Change’ what we need to subsist?

“We must change to survive”, a bold statement holding a lot of weight in the way people perceive the way the housing industry will develop through 2010 and beyond. The words of Sarah Webb, Chief Executive of CIH above spell out her response to the political changes, Sarah Webb believes that ‘our biggest threat might in fact be not enough change rather than too  much!”

Change can be hard to adapt to, because we believe the way we have worked for years’ is the right way. However, can we afford to stand still and watch external, political and legislative changes happen in front of our eyes; are you reactive or proactive? Do you want to influence the housing sectors future and all that comes with it, or do you believe your way is the right way?  A difficult question we all face at the moment. Do we have a choice in the matter?

The housing sector has been faced with forced changes due to many different factors over the last 18 months; the biggest arguably might be the recession and knock on effects following the storm, how individuals, organisations, and communities cope with the change has varied – let’s take the Welsh Assembly Government’s objective, we need to do “more for less”, is this possible? We will soon see more RSL than council homes and the new transfer RSL’s will have more stock than traditional RSL’s.

So, what is the answer looking into the future, how can we make changes, do more for less to achieve positive outcomes and results in this sector? Wales seem to be at the forefront of making changes, embracing and shaping the future with CIH Cymru’s recent proposal for Wales, ‘Scenario 2015’ which is based on a more flexible and integrated housing system, new models of funding and ownership, pioneering new revolutions in digital technology and using the ‘partnership advantage’ based on historic values and the way of working fashioned for the Essex review.

It is certainly going to be a challenging couple of years ahead, whether you agree or disagree with Sarah Webb’s comments, I think time will only tell as to how much we have to do and change to keep up with political and external demands.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments.

 

HouseMark ASB Benchmarking Conference 2010

Many of you may have attended the HouseMark Anti Social Behaviour Benchmarking Conference last week where Peter Jackson, SLCNG chaired the day; we heard from the new ASB Action Team, Year-end results from the HouseMark Team, amongst good practice examples and news on the HouseMark/SLCNG ASB accreditation scheme.

I spoke about the new ASB Action Team that has been set up by the CIH and funded by CLG a couple of weeks ago, after listening to their update, it looks like they are making rapid progress in meeting their objectives to share good practice and shout about innovative ideas to tackle ASB. They have visited a number of customers already and have had positive feedback, to arrange your session with the new team, visit the website http://www.cih.org/asbactionteam/.

HouseMark year-end figures highlight and reflect the huge amount of great work housing associations and social landlords are doing across the UK to case manage ASB complaints; we can see a rise in the number of people benchmarking year on year, bringing it to the fourth year  in operation. A few comments here for you; however, if you would like to view the report and see the detailed figures, take a look at www.housemark.co.uk

• 94% of benchmarking social landlords are engaged in partnership work with external agencies to reduce ASB
• Landlords are becoming more advanced at recording ASB, two thirds now use specialist ASB systems like ReACT
• Noise still remains the main cause of ASB – showing a year on year increase in most quarters
• ASB differs between regions – the North has the biggest proportion of garden nuisance whereas London has the largest share of loiterers

It was a great day at Coventry; as you know, it’s always good to hear of others highlights and working methods in this field. Liz Ellis, ASB & Caretaking Services Manager from Stockport Homes spoke about how Stockport Homes strived to achieve, yet again a three star ASB Service.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts and comments about the results, the conference, the new ASB Action Team or good practice that is being shared; you can contact us here via the blog or email me kateh@e-b-s.co.uk.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and Tenant Services Authority (TSA) launch its findings on ASB baseline survey

Following on from Kate’s blog last week, The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and Tenant Services Authority (TSA) launched its findings of their recent anti social behaviour (ASB) baseline survey, at the TSA stand of the annual CIH Conference in Harrogate.

The results of the survey show that tackling ASB remains a priority for social housing providers despite the economic downturn, but more can be done to make sure ASB services deliver value for money.

Training

Most organisations that completed the survey feel that they are delivering effective training to their staff. However, supporting victims and raising public confidence is an area that 42% of organisations feel needs improving. Also, 32% would like to develop their staff’s access to peer support networks.

The SLCNG offer a varying array of training courses for RSL’s in tackling ASB.

Benchmarking

Although most landlords undertake some level of benchmarking, 20% do not regularly compare their services with those of other organisations. The majority of landlords seem to be missing opportunities to network with and learn from each other, with only 30% of landlords reporting that they help networking with other local RPs.

ReACT in collaboration with HouseMark have a one button press submitter of Benchmarking KPI’s that allow users to compare themselves with similar organisations using the profiling filters provided by HouseMark.

Value for Money

Although the vast majority (80%) of landlords have not undertaken any cost-benefit analysis in relation to their work on tackling ASB, 62% believe that they would benefit from doing so.

ReACT allows users to log Case Costs and these can be split in line with the Respect Toolkit guidelines of measuring External legal costs, clean up costs and Internal costs in relation to the management of tackling anti social behaviour.

Tools and Powers

Sixty-three per cent of respondents felt that their organisation made full use of the tools and powers available. However 28% said that they could improve. Surprisingly, landlords indicated that they were most unfamiliar with areas such as Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, Closure Orders, Demotion Orders, Injunctions and Parenting Contracts/Orders.

The SLCNG provide training and guidance in relation to the tools available to landlords to tackle ASB. In addition ReACT allows users to record any orders served against perpetrators, and this vastly improves the landlords ability to review and monitor any breaches.

Victim-Centred Approach

The vast majority of landlords (80%) said that they take a victim-centred approach to ASB case reporting and have effective partnership arrangements in place with local support agencies. Sixty-three per cent of landlords also told us that they would benefit from advice and support to improve measures in identifying vulnerability and support to protect witnesses.

ReACT allows users to record and monitor where victim support has been given to complainants and witnesses, it also allows users to record where external agencies have been involved in this victim centred approach.

Speaking at the launch of the report, CIH Chief Executive Sarah Webb said “Anti Social Behaviour can have a dreadful impact on individuals and communities, and housing professionals are often at the forefront of trying to tackle it. This survey gives a good understanding of how social landlords are responding to the challenge of ASB and its causes; and it shows where vital support, including the ASB action team, and also our policy and practice and training teams, can best support providers to learn and improve.”

If you require any further information about how the ReACT, HouseMark and SLCNG teams can assist your organisation please do not hesitate contact us at;

Email:	info@react-asb.co.uk
Telephone:	+44 (0) 121 384 2513
Fax:	+44 (0) 121 377 6014

CIH Annual Conference 2010 Review

Kate, Mike and Paul on the ReACT stand at Harrogate

 

by  Mike Blomer  

The social housing world held its annual get together in Harrogate from the 21^st-24^th June with delegates and exhibitors alike speculating about what would be in store for us during the next few years. We had already heard that the TSA would probably fall victim to Government cut backs, that VAT would increase and benefits are to be cut. So with all of this in the background what would conference be like? And would the rumours of the conference leaving Harrogate in favour of Manchester turn out to be true?  

(We now understand that the conference will stay in Harrogate for the next 2 years, with the organisational responsibility moving to the CIH Events Team).  

Matching last year, ReACT shared a stand in Hall A with the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group. This arrangement again proved to be very successful with Kate Hill, Paul Johns and myself ensuring that our part of the stand was staffed at all times. Tuesday morning proved to be the busiest period with the largest number of visitors to the stand over the three days of the event. It was certainly apparent that both delegate and visitor numbers were down on previous years – I will be interested to know the organisers take on this opinion.  

With  threat of cuts in allowances and development funding, we did not expect anti social behaviour to have a particularly high priority – but it did have an airing in the context of deprived communities and David Cameron’s “big society”.  

 The minister was not all that forthcoming. He confirmed that the TSA would be subject to early review (seemingly confirming its demise) and that the housing function of the Local Government Ombudsman could be merged with the Housing Ombudsman Service. In fact he gave a typical politicians address, saying much and giving nothing. We now await the autumn review.  

The social side of the Harrogate Conference was alive and well and, surprisingly for some, dominated by England v Slovenia in the World Cup! Even the conference agenda was temporarily suspended and the game shown live on a big screen in the main hall, with free alcoholic refreshments on offer to the 200 or so watching.  

I was invited by CIH to speak at the Ideas Exchange on “the use of systems for tackling ASB”. Open to exhibition visitors the session was held on all three days. First day there were 20 attending, 18 on day two and on the last day; 22, so it was not overwhelming. But any publicity etc., etc.  

ReACT Team Member Kate Hill, attending Harrogate for the first time said:-  

“Having heard so much about Harrogate my expectations were high and I was a little concerned I might have been let down. To my delight, it truly lived up to all the hype and talk I’d heard; a great buzz surrounded the halls, along with a true reflection of the positive attitudes in the housing industry despite the concerns ahead.   

I’m already looking forward to next year!”

What’s really being done to tackle anti-social behaviour?

Do you ever wonder how much is being done to tackle ASB? As you know, registered providers (RPs) hold a key part in delivering a balanced approach to taking action against ASB as well as preventive measures. According to a recent online survey carried out in partnership by the TSA and CIH, where RPs and local authorities were allowed to take part; priorities and innovative ideas were seen to be key in making a difference, these findings will be used to shape the work of the newly formed ASB Action Team. This team has been created to identify good practice and share those innovative ideas in taking action towards ASB. Over 300 ALMO’s, housing associations, voluntary housing agency, large housing groups and local authorities took part in the survey, reflecting the importance in sharing ideas, working with communities and tenants to overcome the challenges we face in society today.

At the CIH Housing Conference at Harrogate last week, I saw two brilliant examples of the effective and innovative work being carried out already – Glasgow Housing Association Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), which helps tackle gang violence/knife crime in Glasgow’s East End, targeting 55 gangs and over 700 young men. and the Cobalt’s initiative ‘Making Waves’ aims to help turn the tide of crime and antisocial behaviour in the Croxteth area of Liverpool. Both share very strong messages and have tracked the successes of their programmes, for further information http://www.vicinity.org.uk and www.gha.org.uk

As we know, there are a wealth of ideas currently working to help tackle ASB and many more that will follow suit with the new ASB action team in place and multi-agency thinking; by working together, sharing ideas and embracing change to overcome challenges, I’m sure we will continue to see positive changes.  

For further information about the new ASB team visit www.cih.org/asbactionteam

What constitutes a good complaints system?

An informal flexible approach to managing complaints is recommended before moving on to your complaints process.

The procedure should be easy to follow and have as few stages as possible, aiming at completing the internal consideration of the complaint within weeks not months. It is, therefore, imperative that a complaint be escalated through the procedure promptly.

Ordinarily, the complaint should be first considered by a person responsible for the service against which the complaint is made, and whose responsibility is to investigate the claim and give a complete response.

If the complaint is not resolved, the complainant should be asked to give reasons.

Generally, the next stage should involve a manager or person with no functional responsibilities directly relevant to the service that is the subject of the complaint. The job at this stage is to check how the complaint was handled at first stage in the light of the reasons given by the complainant, and to see whether the matter could have been handled better – and, if so, whether the outcome should be different.

If the complaint remains unresolved, it should be considered by an independent panel as soon as possible within the organisation. Ideally, the panel should not be totally or mostly formed by salaried staff. The role of the panel is to review that:

• The procedure was followed,
• The complaint was dealt with as formulated by the complainant (or her/his authorised representative), and
• If a remedy was offered or actioned, it was proportional to the complainant.

Take a positive approach to complaints

You may want to encourage your tenants to give you feedback about the services you provide. Compliments are nice, but complaints can offer an invaluable early warning signal. They can alert you to problems before they get much worse and can also help you demonstrate that even when things go wrong you are able to act proactively. They can give you a good opportunity to build trust and understanding with your tenants. Even when complaints are not justified, they can still offer you the chance to manage the expectations and perceptions of your tenants more effectively.

Keep good records

There is no need to document every single item of information in the course of dealing with a complaint. What is important is to leave a comprehensive and clear trail of the key decisions and who made them, a good chronology, and adequate references to documents and evidence used to inform the case.

A well administered case file will help you, your colleagues who might have to review the case after you, the Ombudsman if he gets involved – and, above all, the complainant.

(All extracts were taken from the HouseMark Complaints guide produced in partnership with the Housing Ombudsman Service, January 2010)

ReSOLVE has been designed exclusively for social housing landlords who need a cost-effective, easy way to record and manage general complaints.

For more information on ReSOLVE please visit www.resolve-complaints.co.uk

CIH Event – Landlords Tools and Powers to Tackle ASB

 Held at the new CIH meeting, training and conference facility in Grays Inn Road London the event was sold out with some 50 delegates hearing from SLCNG, TSA, Audit Commission, HouseMark and presentations from West Mercia Police, Buckles Solicitors, Poplar HARCA and New Charter Housing.

We are all waiting to learn what our new Government has in store in respect of ASB but in the meantime it’s business as usual. TSA is actively promoting the ASB Action Squad and Local Partnerships, whilst the Audit Commission covered the new inspection framework and hot topics such as the impact of recession, tenancy fraud, the respect standard, dangerous dogs and policing.

For me the highlight was the presentation from a senior officer of West Mercia Police, beginning with an admission that the police service nationally has failed to give the attention to ASB that it deserves and requires. It was heartening to hear that ACPO and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary are now majoring on the problem of definition, the context of ASB and vulnerability within modern policing and recognising the challenges.

West Mercia is taking a lead in protecting vulnerable people with a pilot scheme running in their North Worcestershire Division and working with local landlord Community Housing Group. This includes trialing the Risk Assessment Matrix currently being promoted by the Home Office.  In due course, this could become a recommended national standard with a requirement that information is shared between all partners.

Lets us hope that it happens and the initiative is not lost in Government cost saving measures.