How Rachel and Laura are working to build safer communities
Rachel and Laura are part of a network of colleagues at bpha who aim to prevent anti-social behaviour (ASB) and manage cases when it does happen.
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bpha has become a member of Resolve, a leading expert in community safety
Rachel Welbourn is an Area Housing Manager at bpha and leads on anti-social behaviour, which means she coordinates bpha’s approach to tackling this issue and how cases are managed. She has spent more than ten years working in housing and voluntary roles within the criminal justice provision.
Laura Plava is bpha’s Customer Quality Assurance Officer. Her role is to ensure quality and compliance across housing management by auditing key areas such as ASB, and reporting findings to drive improvement. This involves working with bpha colleagues and external partners to help put changes in place that improve your experience and make sure bpha follows the law.
She has over twenty years’ experience working in housing, in community roles and with people impacted by trauma.
Rachel: “Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their home and to live in a peaceful environment. Our communities should be places you can take pride in - safe, welcoming spaces that support you to flourish and thrive.
“It’s important that anyone who reports ASB to us receives a fair, consistent and proportionate response and that we take timely, appropriate action to prevent and tackle issues. Since updating our ASB procedure, we’ve rolled out training for Housing Officers that also includes upcoming legislation changes.”
Laura: “I know that experiencing ASB can be extremely upsetting. Our aim is to ensure it’s easy to report, that customers feel supported when they do, and to reduce incidents. Our current anti-social behaviour web pages feature guidance on different types of ASB and how you can report or address it, and where bpha can get involved to help you.”
What type of ASB is most common?
Rachel: “The most commonly reported anti-social behaviour is noise nuisance. That could include loud music, parties, multiple visitors frequenting a property, banging, alcohol related disorder and dogs barking. We understand that noise nuisance is incredibly disruptive. It can be challenging to deal with and we’re currently looking at ways we can improve this – we will update you on this in the next edition of Talk.”
Laura: “A useful way of recording what you’re experiencing is the Noise App – this really helps us understand the situation and is important evidence to help us resolve the issue. We can then support you by working with everyone involved – sometimes neighbours aren’t even aware they’re causing a problem.”
I’m experiencing ASB, what should I do?
Rachel: “It’s important to keep detailed, accurate notes of dates and times, who’s involved and a description of the incident. You can report incidents to us in whichever way suits you – that could be online, by phone or in person - as soon as you can - early intervention from bpha is key and can help prevent escalation.”
I’m scared of reporting ASB in case the perpetrator finds out
Rachel: “We completely understand the anxiety and nervousness this might cause. We want you to feel safe and supported, so we can treat your information anonymously. We’ll discuss our options for dealing with the behaviours you report to us with you, so you feel comfortable and agree an action plan with you.”
Laura: “To ensure our customers feel safe we follow robust confidentiality procedures and work with support agencies to provide the right kind of support at the right time.”
What’s next?
Laura: “We’ll continue to look at all aspects of how we tackle ASB, improving this where needed and making sure that customers feel listened to and supported. If customers report ASB that we’re not able to deal with directly, such as general living noise or neighbour disputes where there is no evidence, we’ll give advice.
“We’ve identified areas where there are higher levels of ASB and are speaking with customers to understand more about the issues. We’ll then be working with customers and partner/support agencies to address them, including deterrents and, for example, youth activities where incidents of young people carrying out ASB is high.”
Rachel: “We’ve recently become a member of Resolve, a leading expert in community safety. We’re aiming to achieve the Resolve Standard, a national standard for ASB with a framework that helps housing providers ensure an effective approach to tackling ASB."
“If you have experienced anti-social behaviour in your community and would like to discuss it, or have ideas about how to tackle it, please email customervoice@bpha.org.uk”