Improving how we handle anti-social behaviour (ASB)

We’ve recently carried out a review of how we deal with anti-social behaviour (ASB) to make sure our service works well for our customers.

This project was carried out by our Scrutiny Panel, a group of customers who look objectively into detail about specific issues that affect customers and make recommendations for improvements. (Read more about Sabrina and Amina who are members of our Scrutiny Panel.)

They reviewed how NCHA responds to ASB reports, what works well, and what could be better.

Why we did this

We’ve updated our ASB and Hate Incident policies and want to make sure they’re working in practice. We also want to meet new standards set by the housing regulator.

What we found

Here are the main things we learned:

1. Making information clearer

• We’ll make the ASB information on our website easier to find and understand.
• Flyers explaining common issues (like noise or cannabis smells) are helpful and should be used more.
• Fun tips in our customer magazine are a good way to share serious messages.

2. Helping customers understand the process

• Cannabis complaints take up a lot of time and are often better handled by the police. We’ll look at giving clearer advice on this.
• We’ll improve the advice we give at first point of contact on what is and what isn’t ASB.
• We’re looking to introduce training for colleagues on spotting and dealing with “cuckooing” – when someone takes over a vulnerable person’s home.

3. Working better with other parties

• We want to run more community events in areas where ASB is an issue, working with the police and other local services.
• We’ll improve how we explain the ASB process to other teams at NCHA so everyone understands what’s involved.

4. Supporting people

• We support victims of ASB, but we want to make this more consistent and easier to track.
• We’ll also look at how we can better support people who cause ASB, to help stop it happening again.

5. Listening to feedback

• Shared owners are less satisfied with how ASB is handled than other tenants. We’ll look into why this is the case.
• We’ll do another review in 18 months to get more customer feedback and see how things have improved.

What’s next

We’ve shared these findings with our managers and Customer Committee. We’re putting together an action plan and our customer groups will check progress.

Find out more

If you’re an NCHA customer and you’d like to read the Scrutiny Panel review in full, please email customerengagement@ncha.org.uk and we’ll send you a copy.

If you’re interested in finding out more about getting involved, please complete this form and we’ll get in touch. Remember, we pay up to £50 for every meeting you attend!