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Antisocial Behaviour

No police community support officers have raised that point with me. However, on my night out with the chief superintendent and the inspector, I noticed the general lack of regard in which they were held as police officers by people going past. They told me tales of people saying, ““I smell bacon,”” meaning, ““Here come the pigs.”” That general lack of respect for police officers, despite their high visibility, shocked me. The problem affects not only PCSOs. The police officers whom I know would back me up in saying that there is a lack of respect for police officers across the board. We need to keep the powers under review. PCSOs sometimes undergo further training to become police officers. They are an important conduit for training and recruitment. If PCSOs were given additional powers, it might create a disincentive for them to progress to become fully qualified police officers. The hon. Gentleman’s idea is interesting, but I do not necessarily think that it would work in practice. Let me return to my point about parenting. Inspector Bailes told me that the problem arises when parents do not take responsibility, put their heads in the sand, swear that their child is innocent and blame other people’s children or the police—they blame everyone but themselves or their child. It is the children of such parents who cannot learn respect. They learn that they can escape the consequences of their actions and get away with it. Inspector Bailes told me that those children move on from nuisance behaviour to criminal behaviour. They go from spraying walls to attacking other children or older people. In many cases, those children become adults who are lost to society for ever simply because their parents would not face up to their responsibilities. Chaotic parenting can have a terrible impact on the lives of children and young people. The failure to set boundaries early teaches children that they can keep pushing, which can lead to antisocial behaviour. When I was out with the police, I met a woman in a hostel for victims of domestic violence. Although she did not really want to say what had happened to her, in the end she said, ““I love my son, but he beat me and I could not stay.”” That is where antisocial behaviour can lead: beating up one’s own mother so badly that she has to leave her own home. I was delighted when the Home Office announced that Wakefield council would receive £50,000 to help to pay for staff dedicated to helping local parents. When the Wakefield Express announced that news, my office took several calls from distraught mothers who were desperate for help with their unruly teenagers. I am glad that Wakefield parents will get more of the help and support that they need, whether they are dealing with toddler tantrums or teenage tearaways. However, I urge Ministers to continue to look for ways to improve parenting and to support difficult families. The Children Act 2004 states that all agencies should work together to support a child. The Youth Justice Board published a report in November on the use of ASBOs among under-18s. Although I take on board the Minister’s point that only 40 per cent. of ASBOs go to children aged between 10 and 17, those people make up only 13 per cent. of the population, so we can argue that ASBOs are disproportionately focused on that age group. However, I reject the badge of honour theory that has been widely reported in the media and repeated in the Chamber today. Any schoolteacher or parent of a teenager knows that what children or young people say, and what they actually feel, can be two totally different things. If a young person is answering a question, or talking in a braggartly way to their family, they will say those things to make themselves feel hard, and to make themselves feel better about what is essentially a shameful experience. Children feel such things deeply. In addition, the review focused on only 10 of the 156 youth offending teams in England and Wales, and that cannot be described as a representative or statistically broad sample. I wish to offer Ministers some constructive criticism as they review their policy on antisocial behaviour orders. First, we need to make sure that it is not impossible for young people to comply with the conditions that magistrates impose on them, and that young people can remember what is expected of them. There are two prisons in my constituency: New Hall prison, for young offenders and women, and Wakefield prison, which is a serious, high-security prison. In my conversations with prison staff, they have told me that six or 12 months is an eternity to a young person. Those periods need to be broken down into much smaller, more manageable slots, so that they are not set up to fail by magistrates. Instead of talking about six months, we should say, ““The conditions will apply for six months, but there’ll be monthly reviews.”” Perhaps we could incentivise—encourage, rather, as I know that we are not allowed to use the word incentivise—young people to work towards complying for smaller, more bite-sized chunks of time, so that they feel that they can achieve what they are asked to do. We need to include positive, alternative activities to enable the rehabilitation, reconciliation and reintegration of young people. The Secretary of State for Education and Skills talks about the personalisation of learning, and my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) talked about individual support orders, but we could consider the personalisation of ASBOs, too, so that as well as there being a negative and punitive side, we could consider forcing young people to engage in a tailor-made programme of positive behaviour that would promote their welfare and curb their bad behaviour. I pay tribute to the many organisations, such as the YMCA and Rathbone Training, where I served as a trustee for seven years, who take on the challenges of reintegrating the most difficult, disadvantaged and disaffected young people. The Government care about communities. We listen to communities, and we are serious about empowering them to resist antisocial behaviour. People in Wakefield know what respect is and they know how to behave well. They understand what common standards of decency are, and they uphold them, but a small minority will not obey the rules, and they undermine the lives of the decent, law-abiding majority in Wakefield. I am proud that the Government are in solidarity with that law-abiding majority, and that the police, whom I have met and shadowed, have the tools and resources to do their job of making sure that young people get the help that they need to change their lives. I am proud that the Government are in tune with the decent majority.