Antisocial Behaviour

: Yes, of course it is right that local authorities and other agencies need to pay proper attention to creating and maintaining a good environment and to not allowing the idea to gain ground that those out there who are committing vandalism, doing graffiti or whatever are winning in local areas. I shall not go into much detail about that, although when I talk about alcohol and antisocial behaviour I shall certainly mention some design and planning issues that seem to have been neglected in the debate on binge drinking. As I was saying, there was a strand throughout our inquiry that questioned whether antisocial behaviour exists as a phenomenon. We are convinced that it exists, but we feel that measures of antisocial behaviour do not always grasp the fact—it is known to most of us, as Members of Parliament—that continually suffering due to a string of individually minor events can have a devastating effect on the lives of individuals and families. The description of antisocial behaviour can sometimes be trivialised in parts of the media, just as it is sometimes sensationalised in others. There is a more serious consequence of the debate on whether antisocial behaviour really exists. The view that it does not exist, that is not terribly important or that it has always been there, much as it is now, is held by people who were significant witnesses and significant people who submitted evidence. They come from some of the very agencies that need to be involved in the fight against antisocial behaviour. It would be wrong of me to damn whole professions and say, ““They are all like that,”” but it would also be wrong to pretend that there are not strong strands in social services and the youth service, as well as persistent strands in parts of education in particular, that question the rationale behind the Government's drive against antisocial behaviour. People are not convinced that there is a major problem, and one issue that I want to draw out is the extent to which changing attitudes in those agencies and professions will be critical to Government success in delivering on their respect action plan. When we wrote our report, we were cautious about assessing whether the Government are making progress on antisocial behaviour. There were welcome early indications from the British crime survey that fear of antisocial behaviour had reduced, and I believe that that trend has continued. I welcome the figures in the respect action plan suggesting that the trend has accelerated in the areas that the Government have targeted over the past year. Perhaps the good news is that we are beginning to learn what works when it comes to dealing with antisocial behaviour, and the challenge is to ensure that best practice spreads to as many different places as possible. A second theme that ran throughout the inquiry also relates to perceptions of antisocial behaviour. Again, there can be tensions between local communities that suffer from such behaviour and the professional agencies that are engaged in those communities. We argue strongly that a process involving consultation, local decision-making and, perhaps, the new trigger mechanisms that the Government are discussing for the police would enable people living in a local area to define antisocial behaviour problems in that area and the standards by which they want to live. Nothing is more destructive than the tension that arises when the local community says, ““This problem is intolerable,”” only to have somebody from the police, the council or another agency say, ““We don't think it's that bad,”” before driving home to wherever they happen to live. It is therefore important to allow local communities to set standards at local level. When this idea is suggested, however, there is always a fear that local communities will somehow be irrationally punitive, but our experience as members of the Committee, as well as during our inquiry, is that people in local communities often have the most balanced view of which problems are caused by people's unreasonable behaviour and which are caused because there is nothing for the kids to do. A lot of otherwise decent kids are getting into trouble. Getting local communities more involved is an important part of the strategy. I return to the non-players, as we more or less describe them in recommendation 13 of the report. One challenge for the Government is to ensure that groups such as social services, education, adolescent mental health services and youth services are full players in antisocial behaviour strategies. I do not underestimate the problems, even when the basic argument that antisocial behaviour is a problem has been won. I recognise that the Government have put money into social services, particularly to deal with support for dysfunctional families, but there is a real issue, which was honestly expressed by the Association of Directors of Social Services. If people are working in a job where the real driver is to avoid a repetition of a Victoria Climbié-type case, having the management strength to divert resources to dealing with dysfunctional families that are causing a nuisance but not threatening a child's life represents a difficult choice for professionals to make. The Government will need to ensure that they have the right mechanisms in place to achieve the setting of those priorities.