The Audit Commission no longer carries out research on community safety-related issues. This briefing summarises the key findings of our former research that related to tackling anti-social behaviour.
Early intervention provides better value for money than enforcement
Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) use four main ways of targeting anti-social behaviour:
- Early intervention involves identifying issues early, assessing needs and understanding which interventions are most successful, allowing CSPs to deal effectively with ASB.
- Prevention combines diversionary activities such as sport and leisure, with supporting young people to change their behaviour, and stop offending.
- Support – ensures police and other agencies support parents of young offenders.
- Enforcement - includes Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) and anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs). Enforcement is often seen as a last resort where other diversionary activity has been unsuccessful. They need to be complemented by preventive measures to address the underlying cause of ASB
Diversionary measures are the most common approach to address ASB. These measures include sports activities, mentoring schemes and youth clubs. CSPs also use preventive measures such as family intervention programmes and family management, council wardens, and work in schools to educate young people on the impact and consequences of ASB.
Housing services, through their contact with tenants, are in a good position to intervene and address issues early to prevent complaints escalating.
Enforcement is expensive. An ASBO costs £2500 to obtain, and a typical supervision order costs a youth offending team over £4000. Over £113 million a year would be saved if just one in ten offenders were diverted to effective support.
Partnerships, evaluation and data sharing are the foundations of success
Three common features characterise those CSPs that are successfully addressing ASB:
- partnership working,
- information and data sharing, and
- evaluating initiatives and projects.
High performing councils work with police, housing, youth services, schools and private landlords. They engage with their communities to understand local concerns. This approach can improve capacity and value for money, and helps ensure interventions are more effective.
Effective partnerships can quickly agree action where this is required – avoiding victim dissatisfaction from long waiting times.
The benefits of partnerships include improved capacity, more effective interventions and improved value for money. And by taking a multi-agency approach partners are better able to address the behaviour and meet the needs of the perpetrator and the individual or community affected by the ASB.
CSPs with good information sharing arrangements link data sources on ASB between police, council and fire and rescue services. These CSPs are able to map ASB, understand its patterns and develop a strategic response. This allows CSPs to indentify ASB hot spots to target, and plan the most effective use of resources.
High performing councils evaluate ASB initiatives against their objectives, and have developed baseline measures of ASB so they can show the extent to which their reduction targets have been met. They also have good management information about the cost of different ASB interventions. Evaluating the impact and value for money of initiatives enables partners to put in place interventions they know will work and be the most cost-effective solution.
ASB interventions remain good value for money
Police forces, CSPs and housing organisations are reviewing their current arrangements to decide where to make funding cuts and improve value for money. Good interventions for tackling ASB can already demonstrate their value.
All front-line services have a key role to play in addressing ASB and delivering value for money by working locally to identify problems and working with victims and perpetrators. Front-line workers have the local knowledge and information which means they often have a better understanding of local problems. This can help with targeting initiatives where they will be most successful and delivering better value for money at a time of significant cuts in funding.
Audit Commission resources
Councils, police forces, and other agencies can use previous Audit Commission reports and other resources to assess and improve their arrangements for tackling anti-social behaviour.