Tools and powers
Erewash Borough Council and the Police have various tools and powers through legislation to help tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). The action taken depends on the nature of the incident/s, the pattern of the behaviour and the evidence provided. Professionals are available to talk through your situation and can provide advice on the best steps to take.
Across Erewash, the procedure for dealing with ASB follows a number of principles:
- Working in partnership
There are a number of organisations working across Erewash who all deal with various aspects of ASB. Each will have information and a view on the situation and behaviour of the people involved. It is important that these organisations come together to support and tackle the ASB process as they can all provide appropriate support to those involved.
- Stepped approach to interventions
Derbyshire ASB professionals work to a stepped approach to interventions with all those involved in incidents of ASB. This ensures that the interventions are appropriate and timely, but also that consistency is maintained across different cases and circumstances.
- Supportive and appropriate onward referrals
There are a number of circumstances that can and do impact upon a person’s behaviour. Organisations must take these into consideration as appropriate including:
- Mental and physical health
- Family-based circumstances (such as domestic abuse / sexual abuse / substance use)
- Place-based interventions
By being supportive and offering referrals to specialist services, this ensures organisations can be confident that they have considered all factors within the circumstances and supported the individuals or households as far as possible. This does not mean that interventions are not considered or used.
- Justified and appropriate information sharing
The Derbyshire-wide Information Sharing Agreement for ASB clearly sets out that information should only be shared when appropriate, and only with those agencies and officers that require the information to undertake their job. This covers the requirements as per the Data Protection Act 2018.
In addition to this, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 also permits the sharing of personalised, sensitive information for the purposes of reducing crime, ASB and disorder. This is particularly relevant when talking about members of the Community Safety Partnership.
Approach to ASB
- Prevention
The process starts with general prevention work. This includes work to educate communities on what is or isn’t ASB, the effects and consequences of ASB, signposting people to activities and general support available through a range of organisations. This includes:
- Work in schools
- Social media campaigns
- Work to change perceptions of particular communities or groups eg. young people
- Interventions
When the partnership is made aware of ASB issues, they will consider interventions. This is where a stepped approach is taken and starts with a low level warning. It is vital that a good source of evidence is used to consider interventions, and that the purpose of them is to tackle the behaviour itself, but also to allow the underlying reasons behind the behaviour to be addressed.
The key aims of any intervention are:
- To enable the individual to recognise the consequences of their behaviour,
- To ensure that they make a permanent change to their behaviour
- To protect victims, witnesses and the community
Informal interventions are first used and can include:
- Warning letters
- Home visits
- Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs);
For young people over the age of 10, ABCs can be used following the county-wide ABC guidance. This is a voluntary contract made with a youth who has been responsible for causing ASB. It contains a list of behaviour/acts that they agree to stop. The contract is made between the individual, ASB Officer and the police. If an individual signs up to an ABC and then carries on engaging in ASB we would look for more formal enforcement.
- Good Neighbour Agreements / Adult ABCs
- Mediation or Restorative approaches for neighbour disputes; this is where trained mediators / officers meet with each party to try to reach an agreement or work through the causes of the dispute. Both parties have to agree to undertake these approaches however.
- Parenting support
- DCC Social Care / Early Help support
Whilst there is a stepped approach, tools and powers are considered in accordance with other factors such as nature of offending, previous interventions /warnings, impact on the community and underlying causes of behaviour.
Enforcement
Dependent on the situation, once interventions have been tried, if an individual continues to behave in an anti-social way, partners have a range of enforcement tools and powers that can be used to tackle ASB. This can be focused on both individuals and communities. These are specific and dependent on the situation. These include but are not limited to a range of powers contained within the ASB, Crime & Policing Act 2014;
- Individual
- Criminal Behaviour Orders
- Community Protection Notices
- Civil Injunctions
- Closure Orders - Community
- S34 Dispersal Powers
- Public Spaces Protection Orders