Troubled families’ lives ‘turned around’

The plan to tackle “problem families” was launched by David Cameron in the wake of the 2011 riots which shook London and other English cities.

At the £448m scheme’s half-way stage the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said town halls were working with 62,000 families to reduce youth crime and truancy or help get jobless adults back to work.

‘Turned around’

More than 22,000 families have been classed as turned around: with children back in school, levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour significantly reduced and over 1,400 adults in continuous work.

The statistics also showed that 92,000 families have now been identified by councils as meeting the criteria for the payment-by-results programme.

Wakefield has already turned more than half of its 930 troubled families around and Leicestershire almost half of its 810, the DCLG said.

These results show that these problems can be dealt with through a common sense approach – Eric Pickles

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: “I am delighted that our programme is already helping half of our target of 120,000 troubled families at its mid way stage.

“Councils are making great strides in a very short space of time, dealing with families that have often had problems and created serious issues in their communities for generations.

“These results show that these problems can be dealt with through a no nonsense and common sense approach, bringing down costs to the taxpayer at the same time.”

‘Rough estimate’

The troubled families programme is directed at families which are involved in crime or anti-social behaviour, have children out of school and an adult on out-of-work benefits, with high costs to the public purse.

Local authorities receive £4,000 for each such family they “turn around”. Target numbers allocated to each authority are based on a proportion of an overall “estimate” of 120,000 such families in Britain. The government estimates the overall cost to the public purse of these famlies to be £9bn.

Professor of sociology at Bristol University, Ruth Levitas, told Channel 4 News: “The very rough estimate of 120,000 families relates to families suffering severe multiple deprivation in 2004. There was no evidence of school absence or anti-social behaviour. The numbers of such multiple-deprived families are rising as a direct result of government policy.”

Such vulnerable families meet five out of seven criteria: no parent in the family is in work; family lives in overcrowded housing; no parent has any qualifications; mother has mental health problems; at least one parent has a long-standing limiting illness, disability or infirmity; family has low income; family cannot afford a number of food and clothing items.

Professor Levitas said that “the targets set for local authorities bear no relation to the actual criteria for the Troubled Families Programme.

“Initially, local authorities were having considerable difficulty finding the numbers allocated to them.

“However, they were allowed to use additional ‘local’ criteria as well to make up the numbers. There is a financial incentive for them to do so. It is thus very difficult to know what the figures published today actually mean.”

‘Cycle of despair’

Head of the Troubled Families Programme Louise Casey said: “This programme is getting to grips with families who for too long have been allowed to be caught up in a cycle of despair. These results show that a tough, intensive but supportive approach has a big impact; giving hope and opportunity to the families and respite to the communities around them.”

Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “Improving lives goes to the heart of what councils do, and the troubled families programme has built on the excellent work councils were already doing to better co-ordinate support across the public sector for families who need it.

“The progress being made by local authorities vindicates government’s decision to put councils at the centre of this programme and demonstrates the huge difference councils can make in this area when given the necessary powers and adequate resources.

“Focusing money on tackling root causes of problems rather than treating symptoms provides a better deal for the public purse and for the people we are trying to support, and is vital if we are to make public services sustainable in the long-term.

“The success of the troubled families programme should serve as a lesson to the rest of government in the savings and improvements to public services that can be achieved by adopting a community budget approach to delivering other local services.”

Lou has been on the Troubled Families programme in Wandsworth for over a year. She has now completed the programme and claims it has changed her life.
Vinette Gopaul, Lou's Outreach worker paints a picture of what it was like in the beginning: "As I walked in the house I was really shocked and horrified at what I saw. The bedrooms were filthy, the children were sleeping on mattresses on the floor, the bedding was dirty, the kitchen in particular was quite bad. The stench of the dog being there and there was a cat there as well. Lou would tell me, oh Vinette I've already done cleaning this morning, three times or five times this morning. I just stopped her and I said 'I'm sorry, the house is dirty, it stinks, the children's bedding is dirty there is dog s*** everywhere. You need to change it."
Lou says: "I cried and I thought you know what... why have I got you here? Why did I sign that paper?"
Lou had been involved with social services all her life she was in care as a child and the victim of domestic violence for most of her adult life. 
Lou was at risk of having her children taken into care - this was in the words of Vinette her "last chance saloon". Lou says before the programme she didn't trust anyone. "Everyone that came into my house was, in my head, coming to get my children"
The programme teaches the basics of how to run a home for those who have often never had a role model themselves.
Vinette says: "The things that we take for granted, when you don't know how to do it you just don't know. There was a lot of muddling behaviour with Lou. Not just telling her to do it, but going in there and getting down and doing scrubbing of the floor and mopping and cleaning, showing her how to sort her laundry out. Basic stuff but she hadn't been taught how to do it."
Eventually over the course of a year Lou modified her behaviour, she introduced structure and discipline into family life. Her son once told her the change was so great he thought his mum had been abducted by aliens but she says she has successfully broken the 'troubled families' cycle.