Policies : Anti-social Behaviour Policy

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Summary of the Anti-social Behaviour Policy

Scope

The anti-social behaviour policy shows how Link will manage tenancies to minimise the impact and incidence of antisocial behaviour. The Anti-social Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 defines anti-social behaviour to be when a person:

1.  acts in a manner that causes or is likely to cause alarm or distress; or
2.  pursues a course of conduct that causes or is likely to cause alarm or distress to at least one person who is not of the same household.

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Principles

We will:

• Establish methods and preventative measures to prevent and respond quickly to antisocial behaviour complaints.
• Help tenants and communities find their own solutions to problems of nuisance neighbours and provide advice and details on ways to address problems.

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Beneficiaries

The policy aims to ensure that all tenants and their neighbours can enjoy their tenancies while causing the minimum of disturbance and being undisturbed by neighbours. It applies where the people behaving anti-socially are tenants of Link, Sharing Owners with Link or members of families or visitors to those households.

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Practice

We implement the policy by:

• Devising procedures for compliance with the policy
• Training staff to make them aware of their responsibilities and obligations
• Monitoring adherence to policy requirements
• Explaining to tenants at sign-up Link’s policy on anti-social behaviour and encourage tenants to work with us towards a solution
• Providing tenants with a handbook giving a summary of the policy and of the standards that tenants can expect from Link when reporting anti-social behaviour

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Resources

• Using different ways to resolve neighbour disputes, including working with mediation services, advice/support agencies, social work departments, police, local authorities’ antisocial task forces or equivalent, local schools and local community groups.
• Designing new developments to “secure by design” guidelines and working with local police and environmental health departments.
• Training our staff to a high standard in dealing with neighbour disputes and antisocial behaviour.
• Keeping complainants informed as clearly as possible of the outcome of any investigation, while respecting the confidentiality of information made available to us.
• Advising complainants about support agencies and making referrals where appropriate. 
• Taking legal action normally as a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted. Exceptions to this would be where there was a probability of serious harm or injury, or threatened or actual harm. We will ensure that the perpetrator is made aware of the implications of this action.

This policy was approved by the Link Group Board on 8 July 2008.

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