How we’re doing on anti-social behaviour! The role of the Scrutiny, Involvement for Tenants Pool (SIFT) is to look at how well YHN and Newcastle City Council are delivering housing services and, where appropriate, recommend improvements. At the end of last year members of SIFT carried out an exercise to look at how well YHN and Newcastle City Council respond to requests to deal with anti-social behaviour (ASB). Members used several scrutiny tools, for example staff focus groups, customer surveys and mystery shopping to gather evidence on how well the service is working. The main findings included: • • • •
Customers do not frequently complain about the ASB service Closing of cases are not always agreed with the customer There is no evidence of bias of any kind by staff delivering the service Customers feel that the face-to-face service is more effective than using other methods
SIFT’s main recommendations for improving the service included actions such as: • • • • • •
YHN should review all its information for customers on tackling and resolving ASB and update them The wording on the Victim Risk Assessment form should be changed from “complainant” to “customer” Staff should agree the customer’s preferred way of being contacted as soon as possible Customers should be asked to complete a satisfaction survey after each case is closed Tenancy and Estate Staff should receive training on case handling Computer systems should be updated after every contact with the customer
All the recommendations for improvement have been put into an action plan. The SIFT Pool will now work with service managers to make sure all of the improvements happen.