Anti-social Behaviour
Anti-social Behaviour is not just about graffiti, fly-tipping and youths on the street corners. There are a number of other factors that fall into this area of work and likewise dealing with these problems is not just about giving someone an ASBO and having them evicted from their home.

There are many new prevention and intervention measures that have been introduced designed to tackle anti-social problems at an early stage, before enforcement measures have to be used, however once a path of prevention and intervention has been followed, which has not been complied with, enforcement when taken should be quick and effective.

To understand Anti-social Behaviour the definition under The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 should be considered, this being "Behaviour which is likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to one or more persons not of the same household"

It is also accepted that Anti-social Behaviour can be anything which causes problems to another and can include drug use, alcohol abuse, prostitution, littering, graffiti, fly-tipping, youth nuisance problems, neighbour disputes, noise and general bad language and abuse.

In September 2003, a national survey was carried out, which was a one-day count of all anti social reports to local authorities, police and other agencies and as a result of this it was estimated that anti social behaviour was costing the country around £3.4 billion a year and that an incident of anti social behaviour was occurring every two seconds. Anti-social Behaviour was already a serious concern and six months before this count Ipswich had established the ASB Network.

The ASB Network comprised a Manager whose remit is to look at and explore ways to deal with youth nuisance, criminal damage and anti social behaviour especially in residential areas and to use appropriate and early interventions to deal with these problems. The Manager liases on a daily basis with representatives from a number of agencies both statutory and voluntary such as Housing Providers, the Police, Social Care Services, Youth Services and Education seeking to work with these agencies to deal with these problems in a coordinated way.

The Manager is assisted by an Administrator whose role it is prepare agendas, take minutes at meetings, manage the youth nuisance register and to document complaints sent in by the public on Incident Reporting forms, which are circulated at strategic points around the town, to deal with ASB reports via one of the two phone lines we operate and to deal with on-line complaints.

In 2005 Ipswich was one of 80 areas to become a Together Action Area this gave access to funding to develop and run projects to tackle anti social behaviour and in January '07 we became one of 40 areas made a Respect Zone.

Being a Respect Zone means that there are five keys areas we have to address these being:

• Parenting
• Running a Family Intervention Project
• Being signed up to The Respect Housing Management Standard
• Effective use of tools and powers to tackle ASB and
• Running face the people sessions.

Parenting
To address Parenting in November '06, we became one of seventy-seven areas in the country to be awarded funding to employ a Senior Parenting Practitioner. The main role of the Senior Parenting Practitioner is to set up and run evidenced based parenting groups in Ipswich. The favoured evidence based programme is called Strengthening Families, which works with families were there are children aged between 10 and 14 years where anti-social Behaviour is identified. Sixteen people been trained to deliver this method of parenting and courses in Strengthening Families have been running since the autumn of 2007.

Family Intervention Project
To deal with the most troubled families, Ipswich is one of the areas in the Country running a Family Intervention Project. Anglia Care Trust have been commissioned to run this project which provides long term help and support to those families where there are multiple issues and again there must an element of anti social behaviour in the family before this intervention can take place.

The project works with approximately twelve families at any one time and it has always been fully subscribed. There are three members of staff employed in this project, these being a full time co-ordinator who is responsible for working with other agencies to identify families who are in need of intensive family support on a regular (can be daily) basis. All referral are made via the ASB Network Manager.

The Family Intervention Project Staff have also received parenting training in a method of parenting known as "Incredible Years" this form of parenting is targeted at families with younger children.

Effective use of Tools and Powers
By the end of 2007, over 100 Anti-social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) have been given to people living in Ipswich, we have used new legislation to close down drug dens in the town eleven times, Ipswich is the only area in Suffolk to have used this legislation. We have also used new legislation to disperse people from the street on four occasions.

The housing providers in Ipswich are signed up to The Housing Management Standard and members of the Community Safety Team, which includes the ASB Network, can be frequently seen at Public Meetings and Forums.

It is only with the help of the public that we can deal effectively with anti-social behaviour and we are reliant on the public letting us know what is happening so we encourage the public to get in contact with us.

To report anti social behaviour you can:

• Use one of the Incident Reporting Forms available in outlets around the town
• Ring the 24 hour free phone, multi-lingual reporting line phone  0800 138 6570
• Ring our Home office sponsored line 0845 605 2222
• Complete an "on-line" Reporting Form available at www.oneipswich.com
• Contact your local Housing Office or ring the Police on 999 if it is an emergency or the main switchboard 01473 613500 if non urgent.

AR Solomon
ASB Network Manager
Community Safety Team
Ipswich Borough Council