CONTROVERSIAL 'ASBO Towers' plans to house Wirral's most notorious families under one roof are within touching distance.
In just months, problematic people could be forced to live together under Big Brother'-style conditions as the government's Respect agenda is officially launched.
But there is still speculation about where the unit will be based and the borough's cabinet remains "in the dark" about the locations that are in the pipeline.
Family intervention projects, which monitor troublesome tenants around the clock, have achieved an 84% success rate across the country.
The most severe element of the dual-pronged projects would force Wirral's top five rogue families to live together in a core residential unit,' or else face cuts to their benefits.
Intensive support, supervision and enforcement action is given under the initiative in a bid to rid communities of antisocial behaviour caused by nuisance neighbours.
Behavioural contracts will be drawn up and signed by participants citing dire' consequences for any breaches.
The move is driven by the government's Respect Task Force and a consortium of local agencies including Wirral's Antisocial Behaviour Team, National Children's Homes, the Youth Offending Team, and the council's Children and Young People's Department.
This week, assistant director of the task force, Matt Collins, said that the family intervention project and new parenting support project will help families to mend their ways and break free from patterns of crime and eviction.
He said: "We will provide structured supervision while examining the root causes of such behaviour giving people the tools and incentives to change."
Wirral became one of 40 Respect Action Areas across the country earlier this year and since then organisations have been working on identifying the families who will benefit from intervention.
The underlying causes of antisocial behaviour will be tackled, including inadequate parenting, drug and alcohol misuse, domestic violence or worklessness.
Families are offered one of three different levels of support, which involves either around the clock intervention or 10 to 20 hours worth of outreach support.
Manager of Wirral's Antisocial Behaviour Team, Caroline Laing, said: "We are going to use the first three to six months of the project assessing local demand and examining the success of the other elements.
"Discussions with Wirral Partnership Homes are still in place and it will be a short while before we can bring any possible plans for a core residential unit before the cabinet.
"This launch is about bringing together a host of local agencies and organisations who are working well in examining the underlying issues to help combat Wirral's problems."
There are currently nine family intervention and intensive support projects nationally operated by NCH.
In January, councillors agreed that the core unit should not be considered a sin bin' but a positive agenda in the war against public nuisances.
http://www.thisiswirral.co.uk/display.var.1738021.0.asbo_towers_plans_move_ahead.php
No comments:
Post a Comment