85,000 troubled families have had their lives turned around
The government's Troubled Families programme has now helped turn around the lives of over 85,000 of the hardest to help households.
The government’s Troubled Families programme has now helped turn around the lives of over 85,000 of the hardest to help households, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced today (22 December 2014).
With over 99% of families the Prime Minister pledged to support now being actively worked with, councils have had payments-by-results made for over two-thirds of their families.
This means that in 85,303 troubled families in England:
- children have been back in school for a year when they were previously truant or excluded
- youth crime and anti-social behaviour has been significantly cut across the whole family
- or an adult in the home has moved off benefits and into work for 3 months or more
Bristol has turned around all 1,355 of its troubled families and Nottingham has done the same with 1,200 of its. Liverpool has helped 1,987 of the 2,105 it promised to get back on track.
The success of the programme means that a second wave of councils are now beginning work with more families ahead of schedule, and up to 40,000 additional families can begin to be helped by dedicated workers in this financial year in the highest-performing areas.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said:
The Troubled Families programme demonstrates exactly what our long-term economic plan means for people.
New opportunities for families to turn their lives around and make something of themselves; more economic security for local communities blighted by worklessness; and more economic stability for taxpayers, as we reduce the bills for social failure and get this country living within its means.
It’s a triple-win; an amazing programme; and we’re going to extend its reach as far as possible.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said:
I helped establish the Troubled Families programme because improving the lives of society’s most vulnerable is one of the best ways to achieve our aim of a stronger economy and fairer society.
I am proud that this programme is delivering real results, having helped turn around the lives of families by putting children back into school, cutting anti-social behaviour, and moving adults into work.
It’s great news that more than 85,000 troubled families in England have seen real, tangible improvements in their lives thanks to this programme, and that 99% of eligible families are now being actively worked with.
Head of the Troubled Families programme Louise Casey CB said:
To have turned around the lives of over 85,000 troubled families – who have an average of 9 serious problems each – in 2 and a half years is a credit to the councils, the frontline staff and most of all to the families themselves.
This programme works because it is joined up and it seeks to simplify things rather than make them more complicated. It focuses on whatever it takes to do what really matters: getting kids into school, the toughest families out of trouble with the police and adults into a position where they can find a job.
Further information
The Troubled Families programme applies to England only. Local authorities are paid up to £4,000 on a payment-by-results basis for turning around troubled families. The government’s £448 million 3-year budget for 2012 to 2015 is drawn from 6 Whitehall departments who all stand to benefit from the public sector working more effectively with troubled families.
Troubled families are defined as those who:
- are involved in youth crime or anti-social behaviour
- have children who are excluded from school or regularly truanting
- have an adult on out-of-work benefits
- cost the public sector large sums in responding to their problems, an estimated average of £75,000 per year without intervention
Turning around troubled families means:
- getting children back into school
- cutting youth crime and anti-social behaviour across the whole family
- getting adults into work
- reducing the costs to the taxpayer of tackling their problems
See full details of the government’s payment by results framework for troubled families.
The figures from local authorities on progress within the government’s Troubled Families programme have been collated from the latest quarterly returns submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Troubled Families team from all 152 upper tier local authorities in England in August 2014. These do not constitute official statistics.
The Understanding Troubled Families report showed that families within the programme have an average of 9 different serious problems including health and mental health, domestic violence and debt.
At the Spending Review last year it was announced that the Troubled Families programme would be expanded to work with up to 400,000 more families. This publication explains how that figure was calculated.
The Budget in March 2014 announced that work with up to 40,000 of these families would begin this year in local authorities that are performing well in the current Troubled Families programme. The second wave of these early starters in the expanded programme will be:
- Barnsley
- Bedford
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Bracknell Forest
- Brighton and Hove
- Buckinghamshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Chester West and Chester
- Coventry
- Darlington
- Derby
- Dorset
- East Riding of Yorkshire
- East Sussex
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Halton
- Hampshire
- Herefordshire
- Kent
- Kingston upon Hull
- Kirklees
- Leicester City
- Lincolnshire
- London Borough of Bexley
- London Borough of Brent
- London Borough of Croydon
- London Borough of Enfield
- London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
- London Borough of Hounslow
- London Borough of Islington
- London Borough of Lewisham
- London Borough of Waltham Forest
- Luton
- North East Lincolnshire
- North Lincolnshire
- North Tyneside
- Northamptonshire
- Northumberland
- Nottingham City
- Nottinghamshire
- Peterborough
- Portsmouth
- Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
- Sandwell
- Sefton
- Shropshire
- Solihull
- Somerset
- Southend
- St Helens
- Staffordshire
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Suffolk
- Sunderland
- Swindon
- Telford and Wrekin
- Walsall
- Wiltshire
- Wirral
- Worcestershire
- York
Office address and general enquiries
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Email correspondence@communities.gov.uk
General enquiries: please use this number if you are a member of the public 030 3444 0000
If your enquiry is related to COVID-19 please check our guidance page first before you contact us - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-government.
If you still need to contact us please use the contact form above to get in touch, because of coronavirus (COVID-19). If you send it by post it will not receive a reply within normal timescale.
Media enquiries
Email newsdesk@communities.gov.uk
Please use this number if you are a journalist wishing to speak to Press Office 0303 444 1209