Social care input on orders urged

Social care staff must work with enforcement agencies to prevent young people with disabilities being unfairly handed antisocial behaviour orders, a leading civil servant has said.

Joe Tuke, director of the Home Office’s Respect Taskforce, said government guidance stated that a practitioner with knowledge of a young person’s disability or mental health problem should be involved in deciding whether to give them an Asbo.

“The more that the social care agencies get themselves alongside the agencies that are looking to protect the community, the more we will get that right,” he told a conference last week
organised by children’s charity Coram Family.

Tuke’s call came weeks after a coalition comprising local authorities and housing associations said outdated social work attitudes were undermining attempts to tackle antisocial behaviour (news, 3 November).