Wardens provide a reassuring presence, promoting community safety, tackling graffiti, vandalism and low level disorder. They will also support vulnerable residents. In essence, neighbourhood wardens:
- Keep an eye on boarded up properties
- Report suspicious behaviour to the police
- Deal with minor incidents of anti-social behaviour
- Monitor racial harassment and intimidation and report it to the police
- Act as a source of communication between local communities and the police.
Neighbourhood warden schemes work. Across the country and abroad schemes have been identified that have had a noticeable effect in disadvantaged neighbourhoods by contributing to a reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour and an increase in confidence and self esteem of residents.
There were a total of 15 Neighbourhood Warden schemes operating throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region. The initial government funding has now ceased but most schemes have been sustained and the learning has been disseminated across the region. In particular, there is a regional warden resource centre hosted by the Goodwin Community Resource Centre based in Kingston Upon Hull.
In September 1998, the Social Exclusion Unit published a report on deprived neighbourhoods, which analysed the problems facing the most deprived places in the country, and set out a major work programme to start to tackle the complex web of problems that conspire to keep poor places poor, which includes a recommendation to implement neighbourhood warden schemes.
