Troubled Families Programme

Lord Horam Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Horam]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made with the Troubled Families programme.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)]

My Lords, the Troubled Families programme is performing very well and strongly. By June this year, more than 116,000 of the 120,000 families we pledged to turn around had been identified. One hundred and ten thousand of these were being worked with, and almost 53,000 have already been turned around. Updated figures will be released shortly, showing that the programme remains firmly on track.

[Lord Horam (Con)]

My Lords, this is an important programme because it affects the most disadvantaged families in the country. Does my noble friend think that the co-ordination between the Department for Work and Pensions and his own department which has been criticised in the past is now good? I see from his figures that the programme has been expanded since it started. What are the financial implications of that?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My noble friend raises two important points. Co-ordination was a challenge, but, increasingly, we are working well across the board, both centrally and locally, in the delivery of what is an important programme. More recently, we announced joint working with the Department of Health in identifying certain issues pertinent to troubled families. My noble friend referred also to the expansion of the programme. The programme is indeed being expanded further to include up to 400,000 more families, meaning help for even more people.