Family intervention cuts anti-social behavour by more than half: report
Family intervention programmes have reduced involvement in anti-social behaviour of those covered by some 59%, a report from the head of the Troubled Families programme has claimed.
In the report, Working with Troubled Families, Louise Casey also suggested that family members’ involvement in crime was cut by 45%.
Truancy, exclusion and bad behaviour at school was meanwhile reduced by 52%.
The data was taken from cases exiting family intervention to March 2012, put together by the National Centre for Social Research.
Publishing a good practice guide, Casey called on councils to review their ways of working with troubled families and to adopt five principles key to effective family intervention. These are:
- A dedicated worker, dedicated to a family.
- Practical ‘hands on’ support.
- A persistent, assertive and challenging approach.
- Considering the family as a whole - gathering the intelligence.
- Common purpose and agreed action.
At the same time as the report was published, it was announced that the Department for Communities and Local Government would be holding a series of training academies for local authorities in 2013.
Casey said: “My last report was about listening to troubled families themselves and some of the stories from families were truly appalling. However these were families successfully going through family intervention and the results were impressive - so I wanted to ensure that this practice is adopted as widely as possible.
“This report makes a strong case about what works - family intervention that involves one dedicated worker for each family, providing tough but persistent challenge and support, has a dramatic impact, not just on the life chances of those within the families, but on the communities around them who suffer from the effects of truancy, youth crime and anti-social behaviour.”
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “This important piece of work is a crucial step towards building a wide campaign of support behind the work we are doing to break an inter-generational cycle of misery and failure with these families. It will put rocket boosters under the Prime Minister’s pledge to turn around 120,000 troubled families by 2015.”
A copy of the report can be viewed here.