We must give troubled families real help

The family intervention project became involved because of Helen’s son Richard. Since the age of five, he would misbehave by bullying his sister, destroying his toys, hitting other children, and even starting a fire in his bedroom. Richard was permanently excluded from school and started attending a pupil referral unit for short periods. Before he was excluded, Helen would often have to bring him home at lunchtimes because he wasn’t allowed to stay on school premises. What’s more, Helen would arrive home from work to find Richard sometimes not there. She would go out looking for him and if she tried to keep him at home, he would climb out of a window. If she had hidden his trainers he would go out barefoot. Helen says that the family would probably have been evicted if they had not been supported by the family intervention project.

Helen’s story is just one of those told in the Listening to Troubled Families report published last summer. Around the country there are thousands of other families struggling with the same level of complex challenges to which there are no easy answers or quick solutions. Life is hard on many fronts – often interconnected and often growing in complexity as the problems continue to mount. As we approach the end of the first year of the Troubled Families programme to help 120,000 troubled families turn their problems around, time is moving on fast.

There can be no doubt that the government still has a huge task ahead, but it is also very clear that real progress is being made.

Cambridgeshire County Council, for instance, has extensively redesigned services to provide further support to troubled families. Existing staff in children’s centres and locality teams have become “family workers” to provide a more consistent offer to families with older children. Staff have been trained and services reviewed. Family workers have been employed within schools to support teachers to identify and respond to issues at an earlier stage and help troubled families.

In Bristol, the council has increased the number of staff in its family intervention project to work with more troubled families, with support and services giving a greater focus to children, young people and families. Staff from the project have been working alongside schools to increase attendance by tracking school attendance, developing profiles of truant pupils and actively ensuring that they attend more regularly. Parent training and education programmes will start to be offered this year through children’s centres to boost employment.

The Working with Troubled Families report, published in December, highlights some of the life-changing results that good family programmes can have. It cites data on cases exiting family intervention in the year ending March 2012. As a result of intervention, anti-social behaviour was reduced by 59 per cent, involvement in crime by 45 per cent and truancy, exclusion and bad behaviour at school by 52 per cent. Poor parenting and family breakdown were also reduced by 49 per cent and 47 per cent respectively. Crucially, the report recognises that programmes of action that include the whole family work best. The clear implication for services is that they must take a joined-up approach to make a real impact.

These are important insights for those that are developing their family turnaround programmes locally in a climate of financial pressure and service reconfiguration. These figures show the potential for real savings in the long run, but they will only be achieved through investment now. Ask any family what kind of support they need to help overcome their problems and they will say practical help by trusted people who, while challenging them, are “on their side”. As local authorities move into the main phase of their implementation plans, they have the potential of putting their troubled families programme centre stage – investing in robust interventions that are backed up by joined-up, integrated services from the early years and continuing as children grow up. It is what families say they need. The effect could be transformational.

Anne Longfield is chief executive of 4Children