HNY & Your First G&B Newsletter Of The Year!
In this edition
- Our ASB Advent Series
- Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report
- The Heap Report
- ASB In The News
- Our Latest Training Programmes Available For You
- Janine & Darren’s Weekly Round Up
Happy New Year from All of Us!
We hope you all managed to have a restful break and some time to reset after a demanding year. As we step into 2025, it’s clear that ASB and community safety will continue to present a fast-paced landscape, with plenty of challenges and opportunities ahead.
We’re looking forward to continuing to share insights, practical advice, and updates to help you navigate what’s coming next. Here’s to a productive year ahead as we work together to make our communities safer and stronger.
Our ASB Advent Series – Did You Miss It?
Our ASB Advent Resource – Coming Soon As A Downloadable Guide
Our ASB Advent Tip Series was a huge success, with great engagement across the sector and lots of valuable conversations sparked along the way. We received plenty of feedback asking for the full series to be made available as a resource – so we’ve done just that!
We’ve compiled all the tips, insights, and advice from our Advent series into a downloadable guide, making it easy for you to access the content in one place. Whether you’re looking to refresh your knowledge or share it with your team, this resource is designed to help you strengthen your approach to tackling ASB. Launching next week – watch this space for the link to download!
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report 2023-2024: Key Findings
The latest Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report highlights key themes from serious safeguarding cases between April 2023 and March 2024. The report focuses on risks to children both within families and in the wider community, offering lessons to improve safeguarding practices.
This report is particularly significant for ASB practitioners, who are often at the forefront of identifying safeguarding risks in the community. Through their case management, local knowledge, and regular engagement with vulnerable families, ASB practitioners are uniquely positioned to recognise early warning signs of issues such as parental mental health concerns or extrafamilial harm, including exploitation and community violence. Their ability to work collaboratively with other agencies and act with professional curiosity enables them to intervene early, helping to prevent harm before it escalates.
The report highlights key areas where ASB practitioners can strengthen their impact, particularly through multi-agency working and holistic family support. By adopting these approaches, practitioners play a vital role in protecting children from harm, both within the home and in the wider community.
Key Themes Identified:
- Children’s Mental Health – There’s a growing need for early intervention and tailored support for children experiencing mental health challenges.
- Parental Mental Health – The report highlights the risks to pre-school children when parents face significant mental health issues, stressing the need for joined-up family support.
- Extrafamilial Harm – Risks such as exploitation and community violence remain a key concern, with the report emphasising the importance of multi-agency responses to protect children from harm outside the family home.
The findings provide valuable insights to strengthen safeguarding approaches and partnership working. For ASB practitioners, these lessons can further support early identification of risks and improve their contribution to safeguarding efforts, ensuring vulnerable children are better protected through more effective, coordinated responses.
Understanding the Impact of Long-Term ASB Victimisation
Following one of our Advent tips focusing on victim impact, we wanted to re-share the 2020 Heap report, which delves deeper into the effects of long-term ASB on victims. The study highlights how prolonged exposure to ASB can cause serious mental and physical health issues, including anxiety, depression, and stress-related conditions. Victims often adapt their daily behaviours to avoid further harassment, which can lead to long-term isolation and distress.
For those of us working in ASB, this research is a reminder of the lasting harm ASB can cause. It reinforces the importance of acknowledging victim impact and ensuring that support systems and interventions are tailored to help victims manage both immediate incidents and ongoing repercussions.
Risk assessments are a key tool in identifying and addressing risks faced by victims of ASB. The Housing Ombudsman Service recommends their use as part of good practice, ensuring risks are identified early and the right support is put in place. Our associate Katy Anderson is leading a project to review the current risk assessment template to ensure it remains as effective as possible. If you’d like to learn more or get involved in the review, please contact her directly at katy@greenandburtonasb.co.uk.
ASB In The News
This week there have been a number of closure orders granted and the results of targets on retail crime and ASB:
West Midlands – Closure order for Wolverhampton city centre shop after concerns over ASB – Read The Story Here
Gloucestershire – Convenience store in Gloucester closed due to continued nuisance and ASB – Read The Story Here
Kent – Police target ASB by youths in Bishop’s Stortford and retail crime in Sawbridgeworth – Read The Story Here
Lancashire – Shop linked to ASB loses licence – Read The Story Here
Wiltshire – More than 40 arrests in festive shoplifting and ASB crackdown – Read The Story Here
Our Latest Training Programmes Available For You:
- 15th Jan 2025 – Level 2 ASB Case Management Principles (Online)
- 16th Jan 2025 – Effectively Managing Neighbour Disputes (Online)
- 16th Jan 2025 – Effectively Managing Non-ASB Noise Reports (Online)
- 20th Jan 2025 – An Introduction to ASB Case Management (Online)
- 20th Jan 2025 – An Introduction to the ASB Toolkit (Online)
- 21st Jan 2025 – Drafting an Effective Notice Of Seeking Possession (Online)
- 23rd Jan 2025 – Effective ASB Case Supervision (Online)
Training Spotlight: Level 2 In-Person ASB Case Management Training – NEW LOCATION
We are excited to announce that we’ll be delivering our Level 2 ASB Case Management Principles course in a new location in Lyndhurst on 27 Feb 2025!
This is a fantastic opportunity to access advanced, practical training focused on managing anti-social behaviour cases, designed to empower practitioners with the tools and strategies needed to achieve positive outcomes for communities.
We don’t often run this course outside of major UK cities, so this is a great chance for those based in and around the South to access quality, in-person training without having to travel too far.
Whether you’re a housing officer, community safety practitioner, or enforcement officer, this course is designed to provide practical case management advice, real-world insights, and the confidence to manage complex ASB cases effectively.
Spaces are limited, so don’t miss an opportunity if you are commutable to the New Forest!
Janine & Darren’s Weekly Round-Up: Starting 2025 with Purpose
Happy New Year to everyone in the sector! This week’s newsletter brings a mix of reflections and practical resources to kick off the new year. Our ASB Advent Tips series sparked lots of conversations in December, and it’s been great to see so many of you requesting the full series as a downloadable guide. It’s a reminder that small, practical steps can make a big difference when shared widely. We can’t wait to share the link with you next week so that you can access it and put it to good use.
Looking ahead, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report and Heap Report remind us of the deeper, long-term impacts that ASB can have on individuals and communities. These reports aren’t just for headline reading – they’re a call to ensure that our interventions are more than just short-term fixes. We need to think about the ripple effect of our work, particularly when dealing with victims who have experienced persistent ASB over long periods.
We’re also seeing a busy start to the year with ASB in the news, including several closure orders and police crackdowns on retail crime. These stories show how enforcement tools continue to be used to provide immediate relief to communities, but they also highlight the need for continued focus on prevention and longer-term solutions.
Finally, our training programme is in full swing for January and beyond. Whether you’re looking to enhance your ASB case management skills or dive deeper into specific tools like injunctions or noise complaints, there’s something for everyone. And with our new in-person course in Lyndhurst in February, we’re excited to be delivering more accessible, practical training for those outside major cities.
We know this year will bring its share of challenges, but we’re ready to face them alongside you – sharing insights, offering advice, and learning together to keep our communities safer and stronger.
Here’s to a productive 2025!
Janine & Darren