Government under fire for '˜misleading' claim it turned round lives of 14,000 Yorkshire families

Claims that a flagship intervention project had turned around the lives of 99 per cent of England's most troubled families were misleading, according to a Commons committee.
The Government's troubled families scheme was said to have turned round thousands of lives.The Government's troubled families scheme was said to have turned round thousands of lives.
The Government's troubled families scheme was said to have turned round thousands of lives.

The Government also overstated the financial benefits of the scheme when it claimed it had saved taxpayers £1.2 billion, MPs found.

They attacked the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for “unacceptable” delays and “obfuscation” in publishing an evaluation of the Troubled Families programme.

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Some families have been pushed quickly through the scheme because the rewards for local authorities carrying out the programme are encouraging “perverse” behaviour, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found.

Louise Casey (left) listens to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles as he speaks at a reception at 10 Downing Street in London.Louise Casey (left) listens to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles as he speaks at a reception at 10 Downing Street in London.
Louise Casey (left) listens to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles as he speaks at a reception at 10 Downing Street in London.

It also said the success rate of the scheme was based on snapshots of how families were performing, which could include areas such as improved school attendance, rather than long-term results.

MPs said the Government had failed to prove the effectiveness of the initiative, which was launched by David Cameron in the wake of the 2011 riots to turn around the lives of 120,000 families in England by 2015 and later extended to help an additional 400,000 families.

It follows the release of research in October by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which had been commissioned to carry out an official national impact study, that found the scheme had “no significant impact”.

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In May 2015, statistics published by the Government suggested that 98.9 per cent of the 117,910 families targeted by the scheme had been “turned around”. This included 13,801 of the 14,010 Yorkshire families involved, an apparent success rate of 98.5 per cent.

Louise Casey-Head of the Goverment's 'Troubled Families Programme'.Louise Casey-Head of the Goverment's 'Troubled Families Programme'.
Louise Casey-Head of the Goverment's 'Troubled Families Programme'.

The figures were hailed by then-Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who described the programme as “remarkable” and “life-changing”.

But they were questioned by some commentators, including Lyn Brown MP, who claimed that many families classed as having been ‘turned around’ had never engaged with the programme, with many still facing problems of crime, unemployment and truancy.

The scheme was set up and run until 2014 by Dame Louise Casey, who went on to carry out the inspection of scandal-hit Rotherham council which prompted the resignation of the authority’s entire political leadership.

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Ministers had been accused of suppressing the critical findings after holding the information for more than a year before publication.

Louise Casey (left) listens to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles as he speaks at a reception at 10 Downing Street in London.Louise Casey (left) listens to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles as he speaks at a reception at 10 Downing Street in London.
Louise Casey (left) listens to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles as he speaks at a reception at 10 Downing Street in London.

Meg Hillier, who chairs the PAC, said: “Government officials might be inclined to consider our comments on the delay in publishing its Troubled Families evaluation as a slap on the wrist about Whitehall bureaucracy.

“Let me assure them that given the ambitions for this programme, the implications for families and the significant sums of money invested, it is far more serious than that.

“But it is particularly important with a new initiative that there is transparency so that the Government can learn and adapt the programme.”

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The cost of delivering the programme was not taken into account when the government published a report in March 2015 claiming that it had saved taxpayers £1.2 billion, the PAC found.

Louise Casey-Head of the Goverment's 'Troubled Families Programme'.Louise Casey-Head of the Goverment's 'Troubled Families Programme'.
Louise Casey-Head of the Goverment's 'Troubled Families Programme'.

It also said the success rate of the scheme was based on snapshots of how families were performing, which could include areas such as improved school attendance, rather than long-term results.

“The implication of ‘turned around’ was misleading, as the term was only indicative of achieving short-term outcomes under the programme rather than representing long-term, sustainable change in families’ lives,” the report said.

“While there was some success, by claiming that an outcome achieved meant that a family had been ‘turned around’, the department’s use of the term overstated the impact of the Troubled Families programme.”

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A Government spokesman said: “As the PAC report recognises, the Troubled Families programme enabled local authorities to expand and transform the way local services work with families.

“But of course, there will always be lessons to learn and we have already made significant improvements to the second stage of the programme.

“We will look carefully at the evidence to find out how we can improve the programme further to help some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”