Hate incidents in social rented housing: A review of approaches and the use of the Tackling Hate Incident Toolkit Dr Jacqueline Aneen Campbell, Shelter Cymru Alicja Zalasinska, Tai Pawb

‘ Tackling Hate Incidents – a Toolkit for Social Landlords in Wales’ (the Toolkit; 2008) A common approach, based on good practice and tends to individual needs Front line staff and those who design services Introduction

The Toolkit Getting people to report hate incidents Investigating incidents and action planning Supporting victims and witnesses Achieving multi-agency working Taking action against perpetrators Improving practice Working to reduce hate incidents

The Research Team undertook a process and impact evaluation of the Toolkit between June 2012 and October Gathering information: How the toolkit has been used A Review of social landlord approaches to tackling hate incidents Aim

Findings Somewhat widely used ( 37%), mainly by registered social landlords Many following the ethos of the Toolkit Useful guide for effective policies and practice Range of approaches for dealing with hate incidents and examples of good practice

Themes (i)Awareness and recognition of hate incidents (ii)Consistency of response across Wales; (iii) A multi-agency approach to tackling hate incidents; (iv)Barriers to victims and witnesses of hate incidents reporting the incident to their social landlord (v)The monitoring of outcome data of hate incident work and; (vi) Resolution of the hate incidents or crime.

Awareness and recognition of hate incidents and consistency of response Barriers to recognising hate incidents: The Toolkit was seen as helpful in aiding staff to recognise hate incidents Rural areas Lesser known protected characteristics

A multi-agency approach to tackling hate incidents and barriers to reporting Good evidence of effective partnership working Local and national organisations plus service users Reluctance to report due to: Lack of awareness User friendliness of the reporting system Fear of repercussions Lack of confidence that anything will be done

The monitoring of outcome data of hate incident work and case resolution Lack of formal monitoring of outcomes. However, this is changing The research found that social landlords have a range of means of dealing with hate incidents from eviction, to mediation and restorative justice Should be victim-centred

Key recommendations (i) Promotion of the Toolkit and better awareness; (ii) Partnership working; and (iii) Changes to the Toolkit.

Promotion of the Toolkit and better awareness Further promote the toolkit Not only to social landlords Encourage engagement with victims to shape hate crime policies/practices Monitor and evaluate outcomes of hate crime policy/practice Ensure more recognition/action in areas less exposed (e.g. rural) Regular training and commitment Raise awareness of hate incidents

Promotion of the Toolkit and better awareness Regular promotion of good practice – e.g. ASB Forum Offer user friendly, accessible reporting

Partnership working More good practice on multi-agency work, e.g. info sharing protocols, common risk assessment, examples of MARAC’s LA’s and RSL’s – more prevention work, e.g. through community cohesion; clearly embedded into SIP’s, housing policies etc

Toolkit Could have more examples & templates, e.g. multi-agency working, reducing HC, reporting mechanisms, raising awareness publicity etc Could be an online tool More on prevention, e.g. community cohesion, good relations initiatives; allocation considerations Examples of restorative justice, early intervention, mediation

Link to the research report: incidents-social-rented-housing-review-approaches-use-tackling-hate- incident-toolkit/;jsessionid=B0D13481E6613EAEEFF07CA61A2E02EB?lang=en Contacts: Dr Jacqueline Campbell, Shelter Cymru Alicja Zalesinska, Tai Pawb