ASB case management overview

Managing anti-social behaviour (ASB) cases effectively is a key feature of a high-quality, customer-focused ASB service. Indeed, tackling ASB remains consistently top of the list of issues that tenants care about, and it is widely recognised that time spent on delivering prevention initiatives can significantly reduce resource intensive and costly enforcement action. It's importance is integral to the 'Respect ASB Charter for Housing' publication, which helps providers benchmark their current service against a standardised set of commitments and desirable outcomes, and therefore plot the transition towards 'best of breed' services. In accepting and signing up to the recommendations of the charter, a social housing provider would undertake the following:

To demonstrate leadership and strategic commitment in ASB management
To provide an accessible and accountable ASB service
To take swift action to protect communities
To adopt a supportive approach to working with victims and witnesses
To embed a value for money approach to the ASB service provision.

The ASB charter is intended to be a framework only, and can be adapted and extended to local circumstances and priorities. Overall, it sets out the vision for sound ASB case management, specifically: to protect victims, witnesses and communities from harm; to ensure that tenants receive a fair and consistent service; and that providers take timely and appropriate action to prevent and address ASB in all its forms. Effective casework underpins all activity to reduce ASB, beginning with receiving and recording a complaint, right through to successfully resolving the problem. Comprehensive ASB policies and procedures, developed in association with tenants and their priorities, should be seen as a prerequisite to robust ASB case management.

Within Civica Cx Housing, ASB case management focuses on the creation of a brand new case file resulting from a reported incident; firstly by locating the initial contact and then linking additional complainants and alleged perpetrators, named or unknown. In capturing comprehensive details pertinent to the incident, it will likely be necessary to ascribe multiple ASB categories to the case. For example, a tenant might report an incident of noise due to incessant dog barking but then continue to explain that in an attempt to resolve the situation privately, the dog owner became aggressive, using threatening behaviour. The accurate recording of the incident would therefore constitute separate ASB categories for "animals", "noise" and "threats of violence", including comprehensive details for each. In saving down the case, the end user has one of three options:

To create a brand new case file in isolation
To create a brand new case file and forge a link to an existing record i.e. to formally acknowledge that the cases are related
To transfer the recorded details to an existing case file without creating a brand new case.

ASB cases can also be linked to CRM communications, ensuring that the progression of a call is dictated by the activities relevant to the case file.

Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of ASB case management, including: