Community Trigger workshop with Merseyside PCC - 23/06/21
Helping victims of ASB to get the right response
More than 30 community safety organisations will receive training today to ensure victims of anti-social behaviour get the right response, thanks to the region’s Police Commissioner.
Emily Spurrell has united with charity ASB Help to run the online workshop today (Wednesday 23rd June) which aims to increase awareness and understanding of the ‘Community Trigger’.
The Community Trigger, also known as the ASB Case Review, was introduced in 2014. It is a legal tool which gives victims of persistent anti-social behaviour the right to demand that local agencies review their response.
A member of the public can request a Community Trigger from their local council if they have reported three incidents of anti-social behaviour in the preceding six months, and they feel further action is needed to resolve their case. Anyone can activate the community trigger, including practitioners, with the consent of the victim.
Once a Community Trigger is activated, the local council must notify the other organisations involved, including the police, local health teams and registered providers of social housing, and hold a multi-agency case review, which sees all the various agencies come together to identify actions that can be taken to resolve the case.
If a victim is not happy with the response, they can appeal to the Police Commissioner who will examine the case review and may ask the agencies to conduct a further review of their case.
Today’s virtual training will be led by ASB Help’s Chief Executive Rebecca Brown, and is due to be attended by 33 representatives from partner organisations, including each of the region’s five Local Authority community safety partnerships, Merseyside Police, Merseyside Fire and Rescue and a host of housing associations and community organisations.
Merseyside’s Police Commissioner Emily Spurrell said: “The Community Trigger was brought in seven years ago to give victims of persistent ASB who feel nothing is being done and no-one is listening, the chance to get answers.
“Yet sadly, this important legal tool is still little known and little understood. I wanted to change that here in Merseyside, so that all the agencies involved in the process know how it should be used and feel confident promoting it to victims in their area.
“Anti-social behaviour is often, wrongly, viewed as ‘low-level’, but for victims who are repeatedly and persistently targeted it can have a hugely damaging effect, leaving people too scared to leave their front door and even afraid while they are inside their own home. It causes fear, stress, anxiety, depression. People who are subjected to this type of treatment deserve to get help and, if it isn’t forthcoming, they deserve to know why.
“I hope by running this training event today, more people will be able to come forward and get answers promptly and proactively. Crucially, I hope it will give more victims the confidence to come forward if they are suffering.”
ASB Helps’ Rebecca Brown said: “The community trigger is an essential mechanism for both victims and practitioners. It enables victims to use their voice and explain clearly the harm being caused to them and give their opinion on what a resolution would look like. For practitioners, it gives them back some control to raise the profile of a case and collaborate with community stakeholders to create an action plan to resolve it.”
Organisations were also invited to take ‘The ASB pledge’ – a six-point commitment which asks agencies to promote awareness of the Community Trigger, ensure their process is accessible and inclusive and puts the victim first
Local Government Association have launched a new series of case studies on tackling anti-social behaviour
https://asbhelp.co.uk/practitioners-hub/asb-case-review-practitioners/
ASB statutory guidance update
The government has published strengthened guidance for local agencies around anti-social behaviour to ensure that victims have their voices heard.
Changes to the guidance:
- Updated references to legislation and to reflect the new Sentencing Code
- Further clarity on the process of the Anti-Social Behaviour Case Review/Community Trigger to make sure there is a greater focus on the impact of anti-social behaviour on victims; including that relevant bodies should always consider inviting the victim or, if more appropriate, a representative to a section of the case review meeting and highlighting that local areas can have independent chairs for the review meetings
- Emphasising the requirements for local agencies to publish details of the Community Trigger procedure to ensure that victims are aware that they can apply and to annually publish specified data.
The link to the full statutory guidance can be found here:
Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act: anti-social behaviour
In the media: Discussing noise complaints and neighbour disputes
ASB Help are featured in this weeks Scottish Sunday Express, discussing the significant increase in noise complaints, neighbour disputes and public nuisance calls. ASB Help reported an increase in complaints of 25%-300% across the board, with most of these related to noise.
Read the full article here - Scottish Sunday Express article
Our website also contains lots of information and advice regarding noise and neighbour disputes.
A good example of practitioners using the Community Trigger...
ASB Help are very proud of PS Wyn Jones of Northamptonshire Police for being the first police officer we know of to activate the Community Trigger for a case of anti-social behaviour in his area. PS Jones recognised the benefits of the Community Trigger and by invoking it himself, the case is being managed collaboratively by every partner agency in the area promptly and proactively. Be ahead of the curve and follow in the footsteps of PS Jones.
Join our ASB Pledge here
Learn more about the Community Trigger here
A Pilkington Malaise? Have We Really Learnt the Lessons for 2020?
We talk a lot about the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca Hardwick; how their legacy informed the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and as a cautionary tale to practitioners. But have we really understood the lessons from the Pilkington tragedy and how to apply them in 2020?
‘I am sick of hearing about Fiona Pilkington’. This was a comment I overhead a practitioner mutter during a training session on safeguarding. I was stunned and appalled by the comment. But when I thought about it more, I realised an unintended consequence of the Pilkington case, as a case study for practitioners, is that it represents a big stick: if you fail in your duties you could be the focus of a serious case review. I wonder if a combination of the Pilkington name, the shame it brought on all those involved and the threat of professional disgrace has created a toxic combination of Pilkington malaise; a sense that if we don’t cover our back, we could be compelled to attend the Coroner’s Court and lose our jobs. If that is the case, it signals a culture of working to preserve reputation rather than in the best interests of victims. By virtue, the lessons we should have learnt are being obscured by a fear that is motivating our interactions with victims to mitigate against reputational damage rather than to find resolution for victims of anti-social behaviour.
It is easy to see how the legacy of austerity, an increase in anti-social behaviour and the inter-dependency on other agencies to do their part, often reluctantly, means practitioners are finding it difficult to manage their caseload, let alone really look and understand how anti-social behaviour is affecting victims.
Last week I visited the street where Fiona Pilkington lived with her family. I made this visit with practitioner eyes; expecting to see the tell-tale signs of deprivation, social exclusion and the imprint of anti-social residents; graffiti, neglected gardens, rubbish and abandoned vehicles. What I found took me by surprise, because Bardon Road is a nice street. It looks and feels nice. It appeared to me that the potential of this street has been unlocked; residents are investing in their homes and making improvements to them. It was difficult to reconcile what I saw and what I know about what happened there 13 years ago.
The visit to Bardon Road was a valuable learning opportunity. It reminded me that managing anti-social behaviour is never what you expect it to be. We naturally form judgements and sometimes these are arbitrary. I considered how many practitioners assumed Fiona Pilkington lived in a local authority property when in fact she owned her own home? I could see how that dimension alone could have influenced how her case was approached by practitioners.
After my visit to Bardon Road, I spoke with victims who have contacted ASB Help or the Victim’s Commissioner for advice because they feel agencies are not helping them to bring an end to the anti-social behaviour they are experiencing. When I listened to the victim’s accounts, I heard the echoes of the Fiona Pilkington serious case review. Multiple calls to the Police, different officers attending, the occasional verbal or harassment warning to the perpetrator, letters to MP’s and that all-encompassing despair felt by victims and their family members daily.
In the cases I have heard, just in the last two weeks, I question if any lessons have been learnt from the Pilkington tragedy. In every case I listened to, I could identify multiple interventions that either the Police, Local Authority or Landlord could utilise from the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. But none of these interventions have even been discussed and the only consistent theme is the issuing of a verbal or harassment warning, just as in the case of Fiona Pilkington. And is this intervention designed to help the victim or to enable the practitioner to evidence they have made a positive intervention? Are they just covering their backs? Or are these practitioners encountering a professional despair? Working in a system that is broken, resource deprived and set in its ways of viewing anti-social behaviour as a secondary issue to crime? If the Pilkington case should tell us anything, it is that the harm caused by anti-social behaviour is real and it destroys lives, like any crime has the potential to do.
How can we apply the legacy of the Pilkington case in managing anti-social behaviour today?
- The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 gave practitioners tools that are not being used to full effect. We must remember these tools came into existence because they were identified as necessary in part because of the Pilkington case. Our work with Police Forces and Local Authorities shows us there is a reluctance to use civil powers to manage anti-social behaviour for multiple reasons; a criminal law mindset, the costs associated with legal action, the potential for reputational damage should a legal intervention be challenged, a reluctance to work collaboratively with other agencies to share the cost and risk of using the tools available. WE MUST EMBRACE THE TOOLKIT WE HAVE.
- Anti-Social Behaviour is about understanding and managing the many dimensions of human behaviour which has been influenced by a multitude of factors including trauma, dependency and mental health concerns. To find a solution to most cases, we must work creatively and collaboratively. This means embarking on a cultural shift that enables practitioners to work holistically and take risks. How many Police Forces have even applied for a Part 1 Civil Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction?
- If you truly want to put victims first, practitioners must be prepared to challenge the consensus. Most practitioners want to do the right thing for the victim, and they come unstuck because partner agencies are unwilling to work collaboratively. In these cases, practitioners can advise victims to invoke the Community Trigger to request a review of their case or A PRACTITIONER CAN INVOKE THE COMMUNITY TRIGGER ON BEHALF OF THE VICTIM.
- Organisations should embrace the benefits of the Community Trigger rather than view it as a bad thing. The process is not about apportioning blame. It is about working with every stakeholder to find a resolution for the victim and mitigate against an escalation. IT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO PERFORM YOUR MORAL AND LEGAL DUTY WITHIN YOUR COMMUNITY.
- A vital lesson from the Pilkington case is that we must make it easy for victims to be heard. We should all bear the responsibility of showing victims that they have the right to be heard and the Community Trigger is their statutory right to request that. Crucially, we must not treat each incident in isolation and fail to appreciate the cumulative impact on the victim. This was highlighted in the Pilkington serious case review but my interaction with victims recently shows a reluctance to join the dots.
- All agencies should be proactive in establishing a pathway to support victims from the outset of their complaints about anti-social behaviour. The Pilkington case review shows us that determining a victim’s vulnerability cannot be adduced correctly from a five-minute visit to an address and based on the persons appearance and responses during that short interaction. Victims must be afforded the time and opportunity to speak with someone supportively about how the anti-social behaviour is affecting them and their family.
- We must be embedded in our communities and foster a spirit of vigilance so that residents can speak on behalf of victims and be listened to. My recent visit to Bardon Road shows how easy it is to form an incorrect opinion based on what a place looks like. We know from the serious case review that officers deployed resources to a different area because the anti-social behaviour on Bardon Road appeared insignificant compared to other streets where the traditional tell tales signs were unavoidable. Anti-social behaviour is nuanced and arguably more so today with the emergence of sophisticated organised crime groups. We must all be prepared to scratch the surface, ask questions, be present on a street and work with partners to gather and share intelligence. Only that way can an objective assessment of a case be made, and the victims be seen and heard.
There will be new practitioners entering the work-place in 2020 who have never heard the name Fiona Pilkington. There will be experienced practitioners who hear the name Fiona Pilkington and give a sigh because they have caught the Pilkington malaise. WE MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. We all have a responsibility to learn the lessons and consolidate them by applying them to anti-social behaviour trends in 2020.
You can read the serious case review here
You can read about the Community Trigger and our new ASB Help PLEDGE on our website
Contact us here
Will you take the pledge?
The ASB Pledge
Following a successful pilot, The ASB Help PLEDGE is now available for all organisations.
ASB Help is committed to giving victims of anti-social behaviour a voice. We identified that by working directly with authorities responsible for managing the Community Trigger, and their partner agencies, we could advise them on best practice and help them to shape their policies and procedures to ensure victims of anti-social behaviour can easily invoke their statutory right to a review of their case. And crucially, that once activated, the Community Trigger brings about purposeful action to bring an end to the anti-social behaviour.
We know that some organisations don’t embrace the Community Trigger. This may be because they feel the process will reflect badly on their organisation or they have not been shown the opportunities the process can bring to the victim and agencies in the area to work collaboratively and resolve serious cases of anti-social behaviour once and for all.
ASB Help established the ASB Help PLEDGE to challenge faulty ideas around the Community Trigger and help organisations to create robust and inclusive policies that will make it easier for victims to invoke the Community Trigger and enable all stakeholders in the community to play an active role in resolving entrenched anti-social behaviour.
Embracing the Community Trigger process is everyone’s opportunity to take back control of anti-social behaviour in their community and make it a better place to live.
In the last six months, ASB Help has been working with a Local Authority on a pilot of the ASB Help PLEDGE. Using ASB Help’s self-assessment tool, every component of their existing policy and standard practices were scrutinised and tested for being victim focused and conducive to resolving anti-social behaviour. Having an honest conversation about their current practice led to an appreciation that change was required. In just under 6 months, the Authority has fundamentally reshaped how they manage the Community Trigger. Changes have included internal staff training, creating a directory of contacts in partner agencies, identifying potential Community Trigger Chairs for review meetings and raising awareness in the community about the Community Trigger and how it can be invoked to ensure the most vulnerable victims know they have the right to request it. ASB Help has provided the Authority with template documents which deal with issues such as information sharing, how Community Trigger meetings should be managed, the suite of interventions available for managing cases of anti-social behaviour and guidance on how to ensure the victim is supported and represented throughout the process.
Following this successful pilot, we invite all Authorities with responsibility for the Community Trigger, as well as partner agencies managing anti-social behaviour, to sign up to the ASB Help PLEDGE.
Show your commitment to victims today and see more about what you are pledging to do and how it will help your organisation be ahead of the curve in community safety.
You can view the Pledge here, and the Pledge FAQ's here
North-East Threshold Confusion
Earlier this year I visited Middlesbrough and gave a training on the Community Trigger to a few agencies through a Resolve ASB regional meeting. There I learned something rather interesting ... and also extremely concerning.
One of the delegates told me that in their local area when a Community Trigger is raised, and it relates to one of their tenants, the police (lead agency) contact them to find out what log of the incidents they have. They send through a record of the reports of ASB and their responses. If the lead agency is satisfied with this log, and can see action was taken (on paper), they tell the victim the threshold has not been met.
No, no, no, no, NO!
Such a log should confirm that if there were 3 or more reports of ASB in the past six months, then yes, indeed the threshold has been met. The case review meeting should then be held to determine whether the right action has been taken and what more can be done.
It is hard enough to activate a Community Trigger in most parts of the country. Victims of anti-social behaviour in the North-East have an added layer - agency confusion over the threshold.
Now it starts to make sense that in our first report Northumberland reported 39 Triggers but that all 39 Triggers had not reached the threshold. Likewise County Durham had 5 and Darlington 4, South Tyneside 3, and Gatehead 2, all of which didn't meet the threshold. Hmm - suspicion rises. Not met the threshold, or on paper it looks like action was taken, so the lead agency has decided that equates to not meeting the threshold.
It makes me want to tear my hair out in frustration. Re-read the legislation please.
Sunderland Trigger versus the Legislation
The plot thickens when I look at Sunderland Council's website and the way they explain the Community Trigger:
Criteria for activating the Community Trigger:
- Three or more complaints from an individual about the same problem, over a six month period, where no action has been taken by relevant agencies
- Five individuals complaining about the same problem where no action has been taken by relevant agencies
Sunderland has defined 'no action' as:
Victim did not receive an initial acknowledgement;
No subsequent contact has been made with victim following initial complaint;
Issues identified were not followed up or no action occurred;
Outcomes and/or case closure not reported to victim.
The dreaded two-tier threshold AND the addition of 'no action taken' - not even 'unsatisfactory action' as was discussed during the pilots, but 'no action' and then a helpful summary of what that means. This does NOT empower victims at all - this basically says if victims receive an acknowledgement and told what is happening (or not going to happen) and perhaps even that the case has been closed, they cannot activate the Community Trigger. There is no opportunity for victims to question what has been done, nor for agencies to come together to problem solve the situation.
Let's see what the legislation says about the threshold:
(4)In a situation where—
(a)an application for an ASB case review is made, and
(b)at least three (or, if a different number is specified in the review procedures, at least that number of) qualifying complaints have been made about the anti-social behaviour to which the application relates,
the relevant bodies must decide that the threshold for a review is met.
See our latest report, pages 20-21, for our comments on the confusion surrounding the threshold which we believe should be standardised and certainly legal!
Practitioners: here is our guide to correctly publicising your Community Trigger: https://asbhelp.co.uk/practitioners-hub/asb-case-review-practitioners/
If you are a victim of anti-social behaviour in the North-East that has been unable to activate the Community Trigger, do get in touch with us and let us know what happened.
Rising Voices in Parliament
What was an occasional question about anti-social behaviour is becoming something of a groundswell of voices as more and more MPs express their concerns. Just in the past week or so debates and questions keep on coming and start to bring into the forefront some of the underlying failings. These are:
- the impact of cuts to agencies affecting their response to anti-social behaviour especially the impact of less visible policing
- the removal of funding for diversionary activities and support services, especially youth services but also mental health
- the fact we do not actually have any way to measure how effective the tools and powers from the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act are and how widely they are being used because this information is not measured
- a recognition that the Community Trigger is a thing, and a thing that should be publicised and utilised
The Community Trigger in Parliament
On 7th June there was a written question about how victims can have a greater input into policies and approaches to tackling anti-social behaviour. The Community Trigger and Community Remedy were swiftly cited - but the former is not known about and the latter is rarely mentioned or used by practitioners.
On 10th June there was a specific question about the Community Trigger, its effectiveness and the requirement to publish data. The stock answers came back: there is an ASB Strategic Board which looks at this; statutory guidance was updated; and they are looking at the Victims' Commissioner's report carefully.
We wrote the Community Trigger section of that report. We campaigned to use the launch of the new statutory guidance as an opportunity to promote the Community Trigger (we were ignored and it was quietly published on 24 December 2017). We want to see this made fit for purpose and are delighted to see MPs starting to take note that more needs to be done.
Yet again the Community Trigger was raised in an oral question to the government by Tom Brake, MP, with a call to publicise it more effectively. Disappointingly the response was that MPs had that opportunity in their constituencies - having an opportunity and encouraging them to do it are two very different things. National promotion would set such local promotion in motion but there seems to be no political will to do so.
No Data
I have lost count of how many questions have been asked of the Home Office about data on the new anti-social behaviour powers. There was another, also on the 10th June, into prosecutions for anti-social behaviour in Leigh. That is a generic request, but drill down, and the reality is that no one is keeping a definitive record of the use of the powers set out in the 2014 Act. We have data on breaches, but without knowing how many injunctions or community protection notices were issued in the first place, it is impossible to know how high the breach rate is and therefore impossible to deduce whether the powers have been effective at stopping the anti-social behaviour. It is infuriating that this is accepted as the norm.
It is our opinion that Community Safety Partnerships do have a good idea of number of powers being used in their area and that with a bit of effort, information could be collated, not just for collection's sake but to actually enable the relevant people to make a fair assessment of usage and effectiveness of the powers. Surely this is common sense.
Debates on Particular Areas
The number of debates being secured in the House of Commons or Westminster Hall on the subject of anti-social behaviour are on the rise. After a number of years where it barely got a mention, there has been a steady run of them recently. After one from Hull MP Diana Johnson on 7th February 2019 following on from one from Hull West MP Emma Hardy specifically about anti-social behaviour in Hull and East Riding, held on 9th October 2018, the pace has quickened:
Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour in Stockton South: 14 May 2019
Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour in Small Towns: 5 June 2019
Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour in Slade Road, Birmingham: 11 June 2019
A good reminder that anti-social behaviour can impact anywhere and everywhere. People are genuinely concerned about anti-social behaviour in their towns, on their roads, in their communities and a current focus by the government on knife crime ignores the crucial link between anti-social behaviour and serious crime. It is frustrating to see so little connection made - if funding were made available once more to provide activities for people to draw them away from anti-social behaviour, and to fund the positive requirements of injunctions then there are huge opportunities to reduce not only the level of anti-social behaviour, but the level of serious crime too.
Of particular note, this comment in the debate on small towns, from MP Siobhain McDonagh:
"Mitcham town centre is unfortunately a hotbed of antisocial behaviour in the heart of the suburbs. Unchecked antisocial behaviour is the first step on a very slippery slope to the level of crime that we have heard described in the debate; the gulf between antisocial behaviour and serious crime is not as large as many of us allow ourselves to believe. There are small steps between noise and nuisance, drinking and drunkenness, and inconvenience and illegality."
This too was spot on from MP Richard Burden in the debate about Slade Road:
"I think all of us will recognise the picture that my hon. Friend is painting. The details may be different from area to area, but the overall picture is very recognisable. I put it to him that the problem with the overstretch is affecting the police and other services. It is not simply a matter of numbers; it is the fact that the overstretch is preventing them from intervening early, when it is most necessary. It is interrupting the neighbourhood policing that, if successful, heads off problems before they arrive. The mental health services can work effectively only if they intervene early, but the numbers are not there for them to do that."
It is encouraging to see MPs voicing their concerns and the concerns of their constituents. It is heartening to know that many others realise the issues and raise them forcefully. We hope real momentum for substantive change follows.
Housing Associations and the Community Trigger
Much of our work on the Community Trigger has focused on councils and police, mainly because they represent the lead agency across England and Wales. However, housing associations are a key player in Community Safety and named as one of the relevant bodies in the Community Trigger legislation. What are housing associations doing to promote it then?
Large Housing Associations
A sample of the really large housing associations brought in disappointing results. All of the following have no information on the Community Trigger (also called the ASB Case Review):
- London and Quadrant Housing
- Clarion Housing
- Home Group Housing
- Sanctuary Housing
- Guinness Partnership
- Riverside Housing
- Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (2 separate websites)
Clarion Housing claims on its website to be the largest housing association in the country, owning and managing 125,000 homes over 170 local authorities, representing 360,000. That is 360,000 tenants who are not being informed about the Community Trigger. Housing association websites direct people to the police for some types of anti-social behaviour but miss an opportunity to let their tenants know what to do if the police do nothing about it (or the council or indeed the housing association itself). This is concerning.
Locally Led
Some housing associations tell me they cannot put information on the Community Trigger on their website because they have houses in more than one local authority area and of course the way it is activated differs from one area to another. There are some easy ways around this:
Regenda Housing give information about the Community Trigger and a link to the government website to find your nearest local authority. Unfortunately this will fall down at the last hurdle because where the police is the lead agency, the local council tends not to publish any information about the Trigger.
A much better way can be seen in One Housing who have been wonderfully proactive in setting up a specific Community Trigger email address for victims, explaining that they will then forward it onto the relevant local authority. Some lead agencies don't even bother setting up a specific email address or giving a direct telephone number so this is impressive from One Housing.
An alternative would be to link into our Community Trigger Directory so that victims can easily search for their local area and find the exact page they need on the council or police website. It is important that all tenants of registered providers of social housing know that this safety net is available to them. We encourage all housing associations to look at adding this important information to their website. Don't forget housing associations can also activate a Community Trigger on the victim's behalf to push a case review and get something done about the anti-social behaviour.