Younger children to be included in Troubled Families work

18 Aug 14
A programme to support troubled families has been expanded to help vulnerable younger children get a better start in life, the government announced today.

By Rosie Niven | 19 August 2014

A programme to support troubled families has been expanded to help vulnerable younger children get a better start in life, the government announced today.

Following on from yesterday's announcement that the Troubled Families Programme will be expanded to cover 500,000 households, ministers said that a wider range of families will be targeted. The programme will now work with children under the age of five, in addition to school-age children, with a particular focus on improving poor health.

While it will retain its focus on reducing truancy, crime and antisocial behavior, the expanded programme will also target families affected by domestic violence, debt and children at risk of being taken into care.

Work will begin this year in 51 of the best performing areas, ahead of a national five-year programme, which will help more troubled families.

Work with up to 40,000 families will start over the next year with a total of 400,000 households to be involved in the programme up to 2020.

A report by independent researchers, which was published by the government this week, reveals that the families involved in the programme have an average of nine serious problems.

The research shows that the programme is now helping more than 110,000 of the most troubled families in England. Of these, more than 53,000 have had their lives turned around, the figures reveals.

The government has said that these families cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds per year without intervention.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the programme is ‘changing the way services are run, saving taxpayers money and turning around the lives of some of the hardest to help in the country’.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander added: ‘The programme is a radical example of how, by spending a bit more in certain areas, we can save much more in others and by doing so create a stronger economy and a fairer society.’

 

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