Government expands Troubled Families programe to cover children under five

The Government is to expand its Troubled Families programme from working with school-age children to those under the age of five with the aim of giving them a better start in life, the Communities Secretary has announced.

Councils are now helping more than 110,000 families in England through the programme. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government, nearly half (53,000) have had their lives turned around through the approach of working with whole families on their problems.

“While retaining its focus on reducing truancy, crime and anti-social behaviour, the expanded programme will apply this approach to a larger group of families with a wider set of problems including domestic violence, debt and children at risk of being taken into care,” the DCLG said.

To be included in the expanded Troubled Families programme, a family will have to be referred by specialist agencies as having two of the following problems:

• parents and children involved in crime or anti-social behaviour;
• children who have not been attending school regularly;
• children who need help;
• adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion and young people at risk of worklessness;
• families affected by domestic violence and abuse;
• parents and children with a range of health problems.

The expanded programme, which will also have a particular focus on improving poor health, will begin later this year in 51 of the best-performing areas. A national, five-year programme will start from 2015.

The Department for Work and Pensions will meanwhile provide 300 specialist troubled families employment advisers to work with young people at risk of becoming unemployed.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “The Troubled Families programme has been a brilliant partnership between the Government and councils, changing the way services are run, saving taxpayers money and turning around the lives of some of the hardest to help in the country, with kids back in school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour cut and adults better able to work.

“Building on this momentum, we are now able to help even more families and deal with even more problems and I am delighted that that work will now begin in the next few months.”

Louise Casey, Head of the programme, said: “Families with an average of nine different serious problems need help that gets in through the front door of their home and to the heart of what is really going on in their lives.

“The Troubled Families programme has been able to do that by taking a ‘tough love’ approach and dealing with the whole family and all of its problems. This has been the start of a revolution in the way that we work with our most challenging families and which we need to accelerate in the years ahead.”