Anti-social Behaviour Strategy 2024-2029
| Title | Anti-social Behaviour Strategy 2024-2029 |
|---|---|
| Resource | Housing and Technical |
| Aims and objectives | The Anti-social Behaviour Strategy 2024-29 aims to prevent anti-social behaviour wherever possible and ensure that those impacted have access to the right services and support. The strategy will impact on all people perpetrating and affected by anti-social behaviour across South Lanarkshire and will adopt a person-centred and trauma informed approach to understand and respond to all aspects of someone’s life, including their socio-economic status. |
| Conclusion | One of the responsibilities placed on local authorities by the Fairer Scotland Duty is to consider methods of how to assess the impact of council plans and policies on minority groups where equality is an issue. In this respect the scope of the FSD would therefore include trying to assess the impact of council policies or strategies on groups more susceptible to economic disadvantage or lack of opportunities for economic advancement due to their social background/age/marital status or ethnic group. One of the problems facing local authorities is how to accurately measure the impact of any strategy or policies on these groups. At the moment there is a significant lack of data available from national surveys on the effects of poverty and inequality at the local authority level on minority groups. One example of this is the results from one of the main surveys designed to measure the impact of poverty and material deprivation, the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The FRS contains a wealth of useful data on poverty and material deprivation levels on different types of household, but the majority of the results are only available at a national level. The results from the FRS confirms that characteristics such as gender/ ethnic group/ disability/ marital status/ age etc. does have a bearing on life chances and influence poverty levels. Starting with gender, the last figures for the FRS (2017-20) suggests that relative poverty is highest for single women with children (38%). The poverty rate for single women without children by contrast was only 27%. For single men without children the rate of poverty was 34%. Estimates for single fathers are not available due to small sample sizes. Until 2010-13, the gap in poverty rates between these groups had been narrowed, but since 2013 the trends suggest that rates of poverty have been widened based on these household types. The difference in poverty rates between households from different ethnic backgrounds is also stark. The latest FRS data for 2015-20, confirms that people from non-white minority ethnic groups (both UK and non-UK born) are much more likely to be in relative poverty (after housing costs) compared to those from the ‘White - British’ and ‘White - Other’ backgrounds. More than two fifths of ‘Asian or Asian British’ ethnic households (41%), and ‘Mixed, Black or Black British and Other’ ethnic households (43%) were living in poverty according to the FRS 2015-20. By contrast only around a quarter of households (24%) from the ‘White - Other’ group (inc Eastern European) are recorded as living in poverty. Levels of poverty among households from a ‘White - British’ background are even lower (just 18%), less than half the rate for Asian or Asian British’ and the ‘Mixed, Black or Black British and Other’ ethnic groups. Poverty rates remain higher for households where a family member is disabled (both adult and/ or child) compared to a household where no-one is disabled. The FRS 2017-20, indicates that the poverty rate (after housing costs) for households with a disabled person is 23%. This compares with an average poverty rate of 17% of households without disabled members. In terms of the influence of marital status, the 2017-20 FRS data implies that the relative poverty rate (after housing costs) is highest for single adult and divorced (or separated) adult households (both 27%). Married couple households are the least likely to be in poverty (13%), while widowed and cohabiting adult households are slightly more likely to experience poverty (19%). Poverty among widowed and divorced/separated adults has largely decreased over the past 15 years, whereas the trend for singles, cohabiting and married adults has tended to remain unchanged. The FRS also confirms that poverty levels differ according to the age of the household head. Over the last 15 years, households headed by those under 24 have been consistently more likely to be in relative poverty compared to older adult households. In 2017-20, while 28% of adults aged 16-24 were recorded to be in relative poverty (after housing costs), only 15% of households headed by an adult aged 65 or older lived in poverty. By reducing a residents’ exposure or risk to anti-social behaviour may remove barriers to them making improvements to their own lives for example reducing fear in the community. It is anticipated that the person-centred and trauma informed approaches embedded within the strategy will lead to positive outcomes for many people on low incomes through the provision of advice and support, The Anti-social Behaviour Strategy 2024-29 aims to improve the quality of life of residents across South Lanarkshire and either prevent anti-social behaviour from occurring or reduce the likelihood of it escalating into more serious acts of criminality and disorder. The strategy has been developed to tackle the key priorities identified by stakeholders, including tenants and residents, and aims to ensure that: • the impact of disorder, domestic noise, litter and the illegal disposal of waste is reduced across South Lanarkshire. • responsible behaviour in relation to fire safety and the use of alcohol and drugs is promoted and improved across South Lanarkshire. • residents across South Lanarkshire are aware of the services and support available to address anti-social behaviour. The council and its community safety partners recognise that tackling anti-social behaviour is not the responsibility of one single agency, and collectively the strategy provides a commitment to ensuring that effective information sharing and joint working approaches will continue to prevent problems and ensure effective early intervention. While the strategy allows for enforcement action which could impact negatively on people already experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, it will only be carried out as a last resort when earlier attempts to intervene and offer person-centred, trauma informed support have not been successful. |
| Completed date | 18/4/24 |
| Contact email | equalities@southlanarkshire.gov.uk |
| Area | Council wide |