Shelter Cymru received funding through the Welsh Assembly Government Social Housing Management Grant Programme to work in partnership with Rhondda Cynon Taf and Caerphilly County Borough Councils to address the causes of anti-social behaviour (ASB). The project's other partners are TPAS Cymru and NCH Cymru.
The project has two phases:
Phase 1: A process of consultation and research into anti-social behaviour in both study areas, to establish perceptions of ASB in the locality.
Existing ways of tackling ASB were seen as predominantly enforcement orientated, with some support links. Those consulted identified gaps in existing services to provide support for the alleged perpetrators of ASB, particularly vulnerable adults. They also highlighted a need for better consultation and co-ordination between agencies, earlier intervention and more education and training to change attitudes.
Phase 2: A pilot intervention project working with a small number of households that are alleged to be acting anti-socially in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Caerphilly County Borough Council areas.
The project aims to prevent eviction and provide a route back into settled, mainstream housing for already excluded households. Other aims of the project are to reduce ASB, improve the participation and inclusion of households and reduce the impact on housing management.
Phase 2 has now passed its halfway point, and Shelter Cymru has published an interim evaluation report, assisted by Glamorgan University. No clients have yet been signed off from the project, but a number of lessons have already been learned.
Nevertheless, the report cautions that the 15-month life of the project may be insufficient to adequately gauge its success, and there is a risk of a premature end to the one-to-one support leading to relapses of nuisance behaviour.
A final evaluation report is to be published in March 2007. Shelter Cymru is presently seeking continued funding for the project.
The Milton Keynes voluntary sector received a massive vote of confidence from Milton Keynes Partnership, with the allocation of almost £1 million.
The funding will come from the Milton Keynes Infrastructure Tariff, a pioneering arrangement that allows Milton Keynes Partnership to plan, fund and co-ordinate the infrastructure that is needed to support the city's growth at the beginning and not at the end of the process. This first tranche of funding is part of a total of £3.75 million of Tariff money that has been allocated to the voluntary and community sector in Milton Keynes up to 2016, to fund projects that will benefit the new communities in the defined growth areas.
The initial payment of £965,000 will enable the Milton Keynes Community Local Infrastructure Partnership (MK CLIP) to establish a small grants fund to support community development in the expansion areas to the east and west of Milton Keynes. MK CLIP will hold the fund so that it can grow to well over £1 million by the time new residents begin to arrive. The fund will be there to ensure there will be grants available for local initiatives.
