Troubled families initiative misses first-year target

Figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show that local authorities worked with 35,618 families between April 2012 and March 2013.

The figure is 6,217 shy of the 41,835 target for the first year of the three-year programme, which runs until March 2015.

The statistics, which have been broken down for each local authority, also show that councils have identified 66,470 of the total 118,082 families they have been tasked with “turning around”.

Councils were advised to aim to identify one third of their troubled families in 2012/13, and the remainder in 2013/14

Despite the first-year target being missed, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles described progress as “remarkable”.

"Many services have been set up from scratch over the past year, so it is remarkable progress to already be reaching a quarter of the families who need help to change,” he said.

“This programme is not only transforming the lives of families we have too often not got to grips with in the past, but it will deliver considerable savings to the taxpayer by reducing their demand on services and helping them make a positive contribution to society instead."

Since the programme launched last April, councils have been judged to have successfully turned around the lives of 1,675 families.

The highest individual authority figure is for Leeds, which has turned around the lives of 135 families.

Local Government Association chairman Sir Merrick Cockell said: “Improving lives goes to the heart of what councils do, and the troubled families programme has built on the excellent work councils were already doing to better co-ordinate support across the public sector for families who need it.

“The rapid progress being made by local authorities vindicates the government's decision to put councils at the centre of this programme and demonstrates the huge difference councils can make in this area when given the necessary powers and adequate resources.”