Troubled Families

Lord Pickles Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)]

The coalition Government are committed to turning around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families in England by the end of this Parliament.

I am working with Cabinet colleagues and local areas to ensure that these families are supported into education and employment, that their crime and antisocial behaviour are tackled, and, that overall costs to the state are reduced. Louise Casey is leading this work for me, as head of a new troubled families team in my Department.

I can announce today that a total of £448 million will be made available from the existing budgets of six Departments to meet this commitment over the next three years. £420 million of this will fund action and interventions in areas across England by local authorities and their partner agencies, and £28 million will be used to boost the Department for Work and Pensions’ support for troubled families.

Central to the Government’s approach is for local agencies to be to able to clearly identify and focus on their priority families. I am therefore also sending out an estimate of the number of families that should be targeted in each local authority area. I will set clear expectations for results to be achieved with these families, and will use this funding to incentivise local authorities to ensure the lives of these families are turned around, and to give them and their children the opportunity to succeed.

Local authorities will work with their partner agencies to provide focused engagement with each family, and avoid the duplication of effort and resources that has been a feature of so much of the response to these families to date. Delivering this commitment will require the full co-operation of central Government and local government; public sector agencies and voluntary organisations—and the families themselves.

The Government will offer local authorities up to 40% of the cost of intervening in a troubled family, payable primarily on a payment-by-results basis when successful outcomes have been achieved. These successful outcomes will be simple and straightforward: ensuring children are attending school; criminal and antisocial behaviour is reduced, and adults in the family are on the path to employment.

The new programme will also fund an England-wide network of troubled family “trouble-shooters”, who will be appointed by local authorities. They will oversee the work undertaken in their area, such as ensuring families are getting appropriate support, and deploying sanctions where necessary.

This small group of families—representing less than 1% of the population—have a huge impact on the well-being of those around them, and cost the public purse an inordinate amount of money: an estimated £9 billion per year, of which £8 billion is taken up merely in reacting to problems as they arise. This is not a cost that we can afford to bear any longer—either financially or in wasted lives.

I am delighted to confirm the coalition’s commitment to this vital programme. I will report to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister regularly on the progress of Ms Casey’s team and our local partners.