All councils sign up for troubled families programme
Joe Lepper
Monday, June 11, 2012
All 152 eligible councils in England have signed up to the government's payment-by-results programme to support families with complex problems.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles hopes the take-up among all county councils and unitary authorities will ensure the government is on course to help 120,000 of England’s most troubled families over the next three years.
Pickles said: “Everyone will benefit from getting kids off the streets and into school; getting parents off benefits and into work; and cutting youth crime and antisocial behaviour.”
The cost of successfully transforming the lives of families is estimated to be around £10,000.
Councils will be able to claim up to £4,000 in government money for each family if they are successful in either reducing youth crime, truancy and antisocial behaviour or by taking an adult in the family off benefits and into work. Councils are expected to raise the rest of the cost of supporting families themselves.
Local Government Association chairman Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell said: “Councils have been working closely with local partners for quite some time to put into action intensive intervention work. This isn’t a new approach but the degree of funding can help take this to the next level.”
The government estimates such families cost taxpayers an estimated £9bn a year.
Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children’s Society, said: “It’s encouraging the government is choosing to focus efforts on 120,000 vulnerable families. But the £450m they have managed to pull together from different departmental budgets is just a drop in the ocean when compared to the billions of pounds being cut in support in tax credits, benefits and public services that are being taken away from these families.
“There are already warning signs that another £10bn could be cut from the welfare budget in the next spending review.
“Without an urgent rethink, far from eradicating child poverty by 2020, over the coming years we are going to see hundreds of thousands more children falling into poverty. This can only lead to more families facing exactly the kind of vulnerabilities the government is trying to address with its troubled families initiative.”
