Ministers urged to expand troubled families work beyond 2015

The troubled families programme has courted controversy from day one. First, professionals across the sector warned that the scheme was stigmatising, overly ambitious and underfunded.

Then councils argued that the government’s figures on the number of troubled families – judged to be 120,000 by Whitehall – were incorrect.

Now, one year into the three-year project, minsters are being urged to expand the scope and timescale of the initiative, as the fate of the scheme after 2015 comes under increasing scrutiny.

Westminster Council, which has been running its own initiative targeting troubled families since 2008, is leading the call to extend the scheme.

Natasha Bishopp, head of Westminster’s family recovery programme, describes it as a “good scheme that offers real benefits”. But she argues that there is a strong case for extending funding for the initiative beyond 2015 to allow more families to benefit from support.