During my time so far here at PA Housing, one thing I’ve really loved to get stuck in with is shadowing other teams and going out with my colleagues on their daily visits to get a better understanding of what their roles are like.
So I asked Ahmed, one of our Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) Officers, if I could join him for a day on site to get some experience seeing what the team does on a day-to-day basis – and the result was a fun and insightful day for the both of us!
We both met at one of our properties in Leicester City Centre after one of Ahmed’s appointments in the morning, then we were off to our first destination: Northampton! He showed me the location of some properties I hadn’t visited much before like Newlife Apartments and Omega House while we were in the car, then we hopped out to take a walk around some of our other schemes.
We walked around Harborough Road, Pen Court and Bidders Close, and I was given a rundown of some of the types of ASB issues the areas had faced as well as the measures PA had put in place to tackle them.
Ahmed told me that Harborough Road had experienced some high-risk ASB involving cuckooing and drugs, in the past that was picked up on by ASB officers when neighbours contacted us directly. As a result, the ASB team worked closely with partner agencies such as local police and community safety teams to resolve these issues by redirecting the people causing the issues elsewhere.
The area had been much more peaceful since those procedures were put in place and residents were very satisfied. We even spotted a few local pet cats lazing around and enjoying the bits of sun that were trying to peek through the clouds!
Bidders Close and Pen Court had no active ASB cases when we visited, which can be attributed to preventative measures put in place with the help of several of our teams, not just ASB. For example, as part of our ASB policy, our Neighbourhood Coordinators (NCs) are tasked with carrying out risk and low-harm ASB inspections and are the first to deal with any low-harm cases should they arise.
These inspections are important for you and us as our Assets team have a programme in place with measures to upgrade security for our properties, and this includes preventative anti-ASB measures such as installing doors with key fob security which is one measure that prevents ASB in Bidders Close and Pen Court. NCs feed into this with the results of their inspections so teams can work together and aim to exceed the Decent Homes standard as part of our 2024-2029 Asset Management Strategy.
After finishing off our little visit to some of our Northampton properties (making a few phone calls and taking some photos for case updates), we headed to lunch and then set off for our final major stop for the day – Daventry.
When we arrived at Daventry, Ahmed showed me some upgraded security doors at Bramley House. We had been receiving reports from residents and the local NC of non-residents coming inside to use the communal areas as the doors previously weren’t linked to any intercom system. This was a unique case as the property sits in a conservation area in Daventry and so has stricter permissions when it comes to planning. With certain one-off cases like this, thanks to the information that NCs provide us, the ASB team can look at a whole scheme and review ways to prevent ASB depending on what our budget can provide. Luckily the doors were able to be upgraded in this case, and things are much more peaceful now.
Then we had an appointment with Stephen Sangster, a local Police Community Support Officer (PCSO), who was visiting a PA resident to discuss some ongoing ASB issues she’d been having with youths in the area pestering her outside her property.
Her case had at first been reported to our Contacts team and was followed up via email by a Safeguarding Officer, who then referred the case to the ASB team. As the case was classified as low risk, our ASB procedure outlines that contact should be made within 5 working days. The next step was the joint visit with Ahmed and the PCSO which we carried out that day.
The resident told us that she wanted to pursue a move due to the youths pestering her by throwing things at her window, knocking on the door and running, and taking advantage of a fault with the trade button at the front door to access the communal areas of the property.
Ahmed explained to the resident in an empathetic manner that her case would not meet the threshold for a managed move but reassured her that we were working together with the police to resolve the ASB. Stephen provided transparency on this by explaining that the offender is known to the police and that they would be investigating their options such as visiting his parents and seeking an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) with him as a written agreement for the behaviour to stop.
It is important for us, especially with cases of ASB, to be realistic and transparent with residents and manage expectations of what we can do as it builds trust between PA, our residents and any other organisations we work with. Ahmed continued to do this by advising the resident of the rehousing options that were available to her and giving suggestions on other measures she could put in place such as net curtains and internal CCTV to capture evidence. We also referred her to our ASB toolkit, which can be found on our website including on our new Your Neighbourhood pages.
We finished the visit by agreeing that Stephen would come back later in the day to test the broken trade button, which was then referred to our Building Services team to investigate and repair so the button is only active between certain times in the day – we aimed for this to be carried out before the end of May, and I am happy to confirm that has been completed now.
After the visit the case seemed to progress well, and the resident understood and accepted our attempts to solve the issues. In early June, Stephen carried out a follow-up visit to the resident and reported to Ahmed while he was in the area that the resident said things had been quiet and there was nothing to report further. This case has now been closed as all our appropriate advice and rehousing options had been given and the ASB died down entirely.
All in all, my day spent with Ahmed was a super helpful one for me and it was very insightful being able to follow this last case until it finished to make sure a positive outcome came from it. I really appreciated getting to see PA’s ASB procedure and relationship with local police in action as well as just some of the many ways the ASB Team works to improve our communities and make them safer for you, our residents.
