Expose councils that fail troubled families, urges Casey

Councils are currently in the process of finalising lists of families that they plan to work with, in order to meet the target of helping turn around the lives of 120,000 families by 2015.

But delegates at the Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services (Chyps) annual convention in Sheffield suggested that local authorities may be “cherry-picking” easier-to-help families, so they are more likely to be rewarded under the payment-by-results system used to fund the scheme.

Responding to concerns that the most hard-to-reach families are being overlooked, Louise Casey, director general of the programme at the Department for Communities and Local Government, said she would be monitoring the situation “very carefully”.

“If any colleague in a local authority thinks that this is not a programme that goes for the most difficult families they are being very short-sighted,” she said.

“If they don’t target the difficult families and reduce their dependency, then in two or three years they will still be highly dependent and costing them money. I am very happy to hear from quiet whistleblowers.”

Casey, meanwhile, called on youth services to get involved in delivering the troubled families programme to boost its chances of success.

This is an extraordinarily tough thing to do and tough jobs need good leaders,” she said. “I hope you make the decision to be part of it. Youth services have something of value to offer.

“We have a chance that I don’t think will come round again – but we can’t do this without people helping each other. I have come to ask for your help.”

A survey of councils by the National Youth Agency (NYA), published in September, found that youth workers are beginning to play a bigger role in supporting families.

Around 70 per cent said their youth service is already involved in their local troubled families programme. Of the remainder, 60 per cent said the service is planning to get involved.