By Richard Johnstone | 27 March 2014
County councils have welcomed the government’s decision to bring forward an extension to the Troubled Families Programme in the Budget, and said the scheme could be used to expand pooled funding to other areas.
David Hodge, chair of the County Councils Network, said Chancellor George Osborne was right to bring forward the second phase of the programme by a year.
The initial stage has seen all 152 upper-tier local authorities in England, including counties, sign agreements to help 120,000 troubled families turn their life around through better coordination of services. A second stage, targeting help at an extra 400,000 households, will now begin in 2014/15.
‘We can’t afford to sit around and say in a year’s time we’ll think about it. I totally agree with the chancellor we need to push on,’ Hodge told Public Finance.
According to government figures, the scheme has helped more than 22,000 families since March 2012.
This showed the benefit of bringing services together, Hodge added. ‘The programme should embrace every aspect of public services, from local authorities to the health service and employment.’
