We recently reached out to just under 35,000 customers to ask for feedback on our approach to anti-social behaviour (ASB). With 3,581 responses, just over 10% gave us their feedback.
Now, we want to share what you told us and what we’re doing about it.
Reporting ASB
What you told us…
Nearly a fifth (18%) of respondents indicated that they had made a report of ASB to us in the last 12 months. However, when checking our data we found only 4% had made a formal report. This suggests that there is confusion between what customers perceive to be making a report to us, versus the formal process for doing so.
What we’re doing…
We’ll be making our website clearer so that customers have a better understanding of what we class as ASB and what our Community Safety team can help with. There are some reports that we now class as ‘housing management issues or environmental nuisance’ that will be investigated by colleagues in Housing, Independent Living, Home Ownership and Partnership Living. We’ll make this clear when customers contact us and we’ll be providing additional guidance to our Customer Service team to improve call quality, advice and signposting.
Regular communication
What you told us…
You said you’d prefer us to communicate with you on a weekly basis if you have an ASB case with us.
What we’re doing…
Going forwards we’ll offer two contact options, either weekly or fortnightly and will use the customer’s preferred method of contact.
Response rates
What you told us…
You want quicker response rates when making an initial report of ASB.
What we’re doing…
We’ve classified the ASB categories into two categories and will respond to category one reports within two working days and three working days for category two reports. Housing management issues and environmental nuisance will be responded to within five working days.
Noise nuisance
What you told us…
You felt that if there was noise more than three times a week, we should open an ASB case.
What we’re doing…
We’ll continue with our noise triage process and if there are three reports of anti-social noise over a rolling seven-day period, we’ll carry out an investigation. We’ll feedback to customers if the threshold hasn’t been met or if the reports are more of a ‘noise transference’ issue which will be investigated by colleagues in Housing, Independent Living, Partnership Living or Home Ownership.
Taking action
What you told us…
You also shared with us that you felt we needed to take more action when you experience ASB.
What we’re doing…
We’ve developed an ASB leaflet that explains our tools and powers - this is available on our website and is also shared with all new customers. We’ve introduced case audits as part of ongoing line management supervision to ensure that cases are being handled correctly and in a timely manner, using the relevant and proportionate tools available to us.
Thank you to those of you that responded to our survey – your feedback is so important to us and has helped shape our new anti-social behaviour policy and procedure.