The Troubled Families programme began work in April 2012 with 120,000 families identified across England as experiencing multiple, inter-related challenges. Supported by £448m in public funding it aimed, by April 2015, to turn their lives around, reduce their impact on the public purse and reconfigure services by creating new teams, enhancing inter-professional integration and introducing assertive, whole-family approaches.
In March 2015, the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) claimed that 105,000 families had been "turned around" by the programme and £1.2bn of public money saved. Meanwhile, a second, expanded, phase of the programme has begun, targeting a further 400,000 families.
A flagship policy of the former coalition government, the programme has also been controversial. Critics have questioned the ways in which families are identified and achievements measured, while at the same time voicing concerns regarding the effects of the payment-by-results (PbR) arrangements. Others have expressed doubts regarding the danger of blaming poor families for the effects of unjust social relations and the sustaining of family changes over time.
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