The Troubled Families programme, launched by the Government in 2012, has been hailed a success with the Communities Secretary revealing this week that over 105,000 families had been helped. Our feature writer, Suzanne Danon tells us more.
In total 105,671 of the hardest to help households in England have been turned around and have benefited from the support provided by local authority teams as part of the programme. These households were involved in youth crime or anti-social behaviour, had excluded or truanting children from school, were on out-of-work benefits, and were costing the public sector large sums of money.
The result of working with these families to turn them around has resulted in all children being back in school for a year, youth and anti-social behaviour has been significantly cut across the whole household, and an adult within the family has moved off benefits and into employment.
The financial benefit of the Troubled Families programme is significant, with new figures estimating the programme has saved taxpayers an estimated £1.2bn, from a maximum government investment of £448m.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles praised the scheme calling it a ‘triumph,’ and the role played by councils.
“It has worked because it has been bold and unafraid of getting tough with those who need it most,” he said.
“It has also provided a long-term solution by tackling the root causes of the very complex problems these families face. This innovative approach has not only saved the taxpayer over a billion pounds but had life changing results for the families involved by giving them a hand up when they needed it most.”
Head of the Troubled Families programme Louise Casey added: “Behind these figures are real people in every part of the country whose lives have changed for the better. Families with nine serious problems each were never going to be easy to turn around, so all credit to the councils and other services who have committed to this programme, the many hundreds of frontline staff who have given their all to these families and most of all to the families who have had the courage to change and given themselves and their children a better chance in life than they had before.”
For more information about Troubled Families visit the Supporting Troubled Families group.
