The RESPECT Standard
What is Respect?
The Respect agenda is the Government's drive to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour by working closely with local agencies, communities and residents:
- It's not about going back to the past or returning to the days of ‘knowing your place'
- It's about nurturing and, where needed, enforcing a modern culture of respect, which the majority of people want
- It's about showing tolerance, acceptance and common decency towards the people around us - our family, friends and peers, people who are older or younger than us, people from different walks of life or who follow different cultures or religions
- It's about being considerate of the consequences of our behaviour for others.
The Respect Action Plan was launched by the Home Office in January 2007, containing the following six key priorities:
- Supporting families
- Bringing a new approach to dealing with the most challenging families
- Improving behaviour and attendance in schools
- Increasing activities for children and young people
- Strengthening communities
- Ensuring effective enforcement and community justice
Within those six key themes, the Home Office identified five main areas of the Respect Agenda that are central to how Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships should be tackling anti-social behaviour locally. These include:
1. Family Intervention Project
2. Parenting Programmes
3. Face the People Sessions
4. Enforcement Tools and Powers
5. Respect Standard for Housing Management
In August 2006, seventy seven Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships including Salford were invited to apply for Action status.
In September 2006, Salford's Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership responded outlining the partnerships proposal to become a Respect Action Area and on the 22nd January, 2007, the Home Office announced that Salford's application has been successful. Here's a link to Salford City Council's website.
Salford is committed to delivering all aspects of the plan and recognises the need to adopt a broader approach in dealing with the problems facing anti-social families and to have a greater understanding of the negative impact this has on the wider community.
We will do this by continuing to use enforcement as a way of modifying individuals' and families behaviour as well as focusing on some of the causes of the underlying problems which often lie in families, at school and in the community.
Respect standard for housing management
The Respect drive aims to ensure that local agencies tackle unacceptable behaviour and its causes to improve quality of life for residents, particularly those in the most disadvantaged communities.
The Respect Standard for Housing Management forms part of this drive and is aimed at social landlords. It is a voluntary standard which the Government wants as many landlords as possible to sign.
The Standard provides recognition for those delivering good services, while providing a benchmark to aim towards for landlords who are striving to improve.
The Standard also outlines the core components essential to delivering an effective response to anti-social behaviour and building stronger communities, such as accountability, leadership, giving greater resident empowerment, and supporting community efforts at tackling anti-social behaviour.
The Standard is built around six core commitments:
1. Accountability, leadership, and commitment -
Landlords need to make a visible commitment to the community so that everyone is clear they take issues of anti-social behaviour and Respect seriously and will deliver what they say they will.
2. Empowering and reassuring residents -
Landlords and the community need to work as one through involving residents and giving them input into decision making. Engagement and effective communications act to reassure and empower communities.
3. Prevention and early intervention -
Landlords can play a key role in preventing anti-social behaviour from occurring. Where it does occur if problems are addressed quickly this often gets the best results.
4. Tailored services for residents and provision of support for victims and witnesses -
Success rests on people being prepared to report and then give support to agencies in taking action. Every case and every person deserves a robust, tailored and sensitive response.
5. Protecting communities through swift enforcement -
Government has provided landlords with the tools they need to tackle a whole range of anti-social behaviour. Landlords need to understand how tools work and be prepared to use them quickly to protect communities.
6. Support to tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour -
Provision of support can put an end to unacceptable behaviour by tackling underlying causes. This leads to sustainable outcomes and gets people's lives back on track.
To demonstrate our commitment to delivering excellent services, Salix Homes is signed up to the Respect Standard for Housing Management.
We will try to achieve this by:
- Improving information sharing with Greater Manchester Police and other partner agencies
- Developing a working group for young people and involving residents in setting local priorities
- Contributing to the City Council's corporate "Respect Road Show" events by delivering regular feedback sessions to members of the public
- Developing good neighbour agreements and engaging local residents in setting standards of conduct
- Publicising the use of enforcement and prevention tools, successful outcomes and positive action by providing regular updates on action taken including rewarding positive "community minded behaviour"
- Publicising expected standards of behaviour e.g. zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour, using leaflets, posters and newspapers
- Developing procedures for reviewing and measuring use and success of enforcement and intervention tools
- Training staff to support and tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour
- Reviewing and produce revised policy and procedures for anti-social behaviour and to ensure they are robust and cover all Respect outcomes
- Developing a protocol for vulnerable introductory tenants at risk of losing their tenancy by having a clear focus on delivering support and challenge solutions at an early stage rather than crisis based interventions
You can read more about the Respect Standard for housing management by visiting the Communities and Local Government website.
