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News
Read the latest news about the Safer Hastings Partnership,
our recent achievements and new initiatives here…
Prison visits deter young
people from re-offending
March 2006
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PRISON visits for teenagers
who have committed a crime for the first time are part of
a new scheme launched in Hastings last October. |
Known as Restorative
Justice, the initiative, which is funded by the Safer Hastings
Partnership, aims to help young people who have offended for the
first time to avoid entering into a cycle of offences.
One aspect of the scheme is to take young people
who are first-time offenders or at risk of offending to a local
prison, in order to give them a taste of where crime leads and the
reality of prison life.
In Crawley, where Restorative Justice has been
running since 2003, young people who have visited prisons have been
able to spend short periods of time in solitary confinement and
speak to inmates about the realities of prison life.
Before this initiative was launched in Crawley,
figures showed that 40 per cent of young offenders who went through
the traditional system went on to re-offend.
However, since the scheme was implemented, 400
young people have been through the Restorative Justice process and,
of those, a staggering 96 per cent have stayed out of trouble and
have not re-offended.
Hastings Police Station now
has its own Restorative Justice Coordinator, Marianne Hovenden,
who runs a Crime Diversion Scheme across the town. |
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She said, “Restorative Justice is a problem-solving
approach to crime. My role is to bring together different parties,
including the offenders and their victims, to look at why these
young people commit crimes, and how we can stop them re-offending.”
So far in Hastings, 20 young people aged from
12 to 17 have been through the scheme, and only one has re-offended.
Other aspects of the initiative include young
offenders meeting with their victims to hear about the effects of
their criminal acts, as well as case conferences and links to a
wide range of support workers and services, such as careers advice,
sports groups, anti-bullying advice and health information.
Click here for more information about Restorative Justice .
1066 Housing Association key
partner against ASB
March 2006
In 2004, the organisation launched its Anti-Social
Behaviour Strategy.
The main aims were:
- To promote understanding among residents about what anti-social
behaviour is, who to contact and how it can be dealt with;
- To take prompt and effective action against people who commit
acts of anti-social behaviour;
- To support victims and keep them informed about what is being
done;
- To work within the Safer Hastings Partnership with other agencies
to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in Hastings & St
Leonards.
Since 2004, 1066 Housing
Association staff have been working with Police, Police Community
Support Officers, Wardens, Youth Service, Social Services
and other agencies to identify key hotspots and perpetrators
of anti-social behaviour. |
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A number of multi-agency teams meet every three
weeks to agree interventions, including joint visits between Police
and 1066, and interviewing parents and perpetrators of anti-social
behaviour.
Mike Thompson, 1066 Housing Association Director,
says that it is the norm now, rather than the exception that Police
and 1066 Housing Association join forces.
In some cases, the families are called in to the
office to acknowledge their anti-social behaviour and are then required
to sign up to an anti-social behaviour agreement. It is at this
stage that key interventions by agencies are agreed, often with
support offered.
Mike said, “It is very much a carrot and
stick approach, which has been effective in most cases in resolving
the problem.
“However, in a few cases the problem continues
and legal enforcement action is considered. We then consider the
Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) route, or legal action under
the tenancy agreement for breach, either by way of a housing injunction
or possession proceedings”.
Legal action requires evidence gathering, so,
in 2004, 1066 took the decision to part-fund an Anti-Social Behaviour
Co-Coordinator and Housing Caseworker to sit alongside a Police
secondee within the Safer Hastings Partnership’s ASB Unit.
Together, they are able to progress cases as quickly as possible.
In 2005, the Housing Association asked its tenants
and partners how effective they viewed 1066 in tackling ASB.
The results showed that 75 per cent felt that
1066 clearly explains how anti-social behaviour is dealt with, while
70 per cent felt that ASB is dealt with effectively.
Tenants were less satisfied, however, about being
kept up to date with progress of cases, particularly when they involve
taking legal action.
Therefore, the Housing Association is now improving
the way in which tenants are supported, keeping them informed throughout
the process. 1066 will continue to monitor customer satisfaction.
Mike said “Overall, the strategy of “Working
In Partnership” with other agencies has paid off in terms
of customer satisfaction with our anti-social service.
“There’s still a long way to go though,
particularly with the launch of the Prime Minister’s ‘RESPECT’
Action Plan and the National Community Safety Plan, which both underline
the multi-agency approach under the ‘Together Action Area’
agenda.
“1066 Housing Association will continue
to develop its role as a key partner in tackling anti-social behaviour
and making our neighbourhoods safer places to live.”
Click here for more information about Anti-Social Behaviour.
Hazel Blears discusses local
concerns
March 2006
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GOVERNMENT Minister Hazel
Blears visited Hastings at the end of February to discuss
local concerns about anti-social behaviour. |
The Minister of State for crime reduction, policing
and community safety spent over an hour with local residents. She
came to Hastings because it is a ‘Together Action Area’.
Nigel Barry, the Safer Hastings Partnership’s
ASBO Coordinator, attended the public meeting to listen to the minister’s
comments in the light of the concerns of local residents.
| Nigel, pictured right discussing
local issues of anti-social behaviour with Hazel Blears, said,
“We take a robust approach to tackling anti-social behaviour
in Hastings & St Leonards and, in a private moment after
the meeting, Mrs Blears was good enough to acknowledge that
fact.”
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Click here for more information about Anti-Social
Behaviour.
Healthy lifestyle
choices promoted for local youth
March 2006
ADVICE on healthy eating, help to quit smoking,
cooking lessons, counselling, information on sexual health, and
advice on exercise are just some of the services accessed by 3,000
local young people per year via the Pulse
project.
Pulse is the Hastings and St Leonards Healthy
Living Centre initiative, launched in October 2002 with a grant
from the Big Lottery Fund.
At the project, young people can get free condoms,
drop-in pregnancy testing, information on sexually transmitted diseases,
healthy eating and cooking lessons, art, education and creative
activities, counselling, support on self-harming, advice on exercise,
fitness and environmental awareness, help with smoking cessation
and substance misuse, and support for young parents.
The aim of the Pulse project is to help people
to make healthier choices, rather than to prevent criminal behaviour.
Paul Burley, the Young Person’s Substance
Misuse Worker at Pulse, says, “We deal with the person, not
the problem. We can deal with multiple problems. Someone may be
misusing alcohol and have a mental health problem, but the mental
health services can’t deal with them because of the alcohol.
The multi-agency approach sees people as people, not problems; it
can take a more holistic view.”
The project brings together a wide range of partners,
including the Primary Care Trust, Action for Change, Xtrax, the
NSPCC and the Youth Development Service, as well as several others,
and has a strong relationship with the specialist Under 19s Substance
Misuse Service.
The 14 voluntary and statutory
partners work together to improve health outcomes for young
people aged 16 to 25 in Hastings & St Leonards.
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Action for Change is the organisation that helps
with substance misuse issues at Pulse. Paul says, “What’s
different about this project is that I work mainly with heavy recreational
drug users: alcohol and cannabis, sometimes amphetamines, ecstasy.
Most of the other drug services offer help focusing on class ‘A’
drugs.”
Paul works mainly one-to-one with people between
the ages of 16 and 25, and can be working with up to 30 young people
at any one time.
He says that there is a lot of support for heroin
users in Hastings, but less for young drinkers, explaining, “Alcohol
is more dangerous than heroin; more people die from alcohol than
heroin by 10 to one. People who come off heroin don’t die,
but they do die coming off alcohol. And it’s legal.
“Cannabis is often the starting point for
drug misuse,” he says. “So why wait until people are
seriously addicted before offering support? For every £1 spent
on prevention, £6 is saved on treatment and you can make a
difference to the person’s long-term health.”
Young people are known to be difficult to reach
with healthy living messages, so the project is as accessible as
possible. Referrals come from a range of local agencies and individuals
can self-refer. Paul responds within 48 hours and the young person
is offered an appointment within a week.
Though there are some people who don’t attend,
some return later once they are ready, and access to the service
remains open even if they turn up intermittently for months. Paul
can see people over the course of a year or for just a few weeks.
Pulse is more than just an office-based service.
The project has a bus that goes to outlying estates and the local
college and, for his one-to-one work, Paul will meet people in cafes
or at their home to make it as informal as possible. He uses a mobile
phone and sends texts, and the project’s leaflets are printed
on concertina folded cards that slide neatly and discreetly into
a pocket or wallet.
Pulse can support families, as well as working
directly with the young person, and Paul often helps parents to
cope and offers group work and open access sessions.
General support is also available to “help
people cope better with difficult situations”, Paul says.
He explains, “I went with someone to their GP to help them
to get prescription drugs that suited their needs more effectively.
The more people are able to get things right in their life, the
less their need is for drugs and alcohol.”
He also provides a signposting service for those
problems that are outside his expertise, such as sexual abuse, benefit
and debt problems.
Through Pulse’s multi-agency approach, Action
for Change can offer its expertise to support other professionals.
A protocol for professionals encountering young people who self-harm
has been developed, along with a supporting training package, and
is so successful it is being extended into other districts.
An aspect of the work with those who self-harm
is a pocket-sized fold up card used to negotiate and record agreements
with clients. Paul also works with the smoking cessation group,
and the idea has been incorporated here too so that people wanting
to give up smoking carry a card to record their aims, as well as
tips to keep them going.
Another innovation in smoking cessation work is
the nine-week course offered at the Pulse Project, which turns the
usual approach upside-down. Smoking is hardly mentioned at all.
Instead the focus is on developing ‘life skills’, such
as increasing self-esteem, managing stress, being assertive, for
example. The last session is about making healthy choices, and the
decision to quit smoking could be one of those choices.
The Primary Care Trust, with support from Pulse,
also offers a Supporting Families Programme. This is a seven-week
course, with a follow-up booster session, for the whole family,
first pioneered in the United States. The programme is for families
with children aged between 10 and 14 where substance misuse is part
of the family dynamic.
The aim is to empower both the parents and the
children to cope and understand each other’s problems, and
to reduce the risk of the young people developing substance misuse
problems too. First the parents and their children attend separate
sessions on similar topics, and then they come together to look
at and work on issues as a family.
Paul points out that for some young people there
can be quick success if they get help quickly and are able to find
the right trigger points. For others the problem may be more difficult.
If they have been drinking since they were very young they may know
no other way of coping.
He says, “There is no one answer; you need
to find the answer for the individual. Often it is best to work
with other specialist agencies, for example, the Under 19s Substance
Misuse Service.”
· For more information on Pulse, visit
the website: www.ask-pulse.com.
Or email: pulse@esht.nhs.uk.
· To contact Action for Change, e-mail: reception.cr@action-for-change.org.
Or call: 01424 460066.
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