Pickles claims success on families

In the first 15 months of the payment-by-results programme, which sees councils rewarded for successfully helping dysfunctional families, more than 2,000 households in Yorkshire were judged to have been “turned around”.

The figures published yesterday also show, however, that Yorkshire councils have identified around 9,900 families that could benefit from the programme but are so far working with fewer than 6,000.

The Government expects local authorities in the region to help more than 13,000 families over the course of the scheme which is due to end in April 2015.

But Mr Pickles insisted that with 14,000 families across the country so far “turned around” the £448m initiative is on target to reach 120,000 troubled households.

Mr Pickles said: “These figures show that our no-nonsense and common sense approach is changing these families for the better and benefiting the whole community.

“Considering the often longstanding and deep-seated nature of these families’ problems, it is a huge achievement to have turned so many around in such a short space of time.

“And instead of several costly services working with the same family but failing to solve the underlying problems, this approach is both more effective for the family and cheaper too.”

The Troubled Families scheme targets households responsible for youth crime and anti-social behaviour, where children are not going to school and where adults are not in work. Each time councils succeed in meeting targets for helping parents find work, getting children back into school and reducing the family’s impact on the wider community they are paid £4,000.

The Government argues dysfunctional families can cost taxpayers as much as £15,000 a year through their burden on the NHS, police and social services and that intervening early could save the Government £9bn per year.

Prime Minister David Cameron also made the programme one of the key elements to the Government’s response to the 2011 riots which hit English cities.

The scheme is due to come to an end in April 2015, although earlier this year Ministers announced they will spend a further £200m from 2015 to give support to 400,000 families to stop them becoming a burden on society.

Predictably, Yorkshire’s major cities have identified hundreds of families that need intervention but the latest figures show authorities covering rural areas such as East Riding are also getting involved, with the council expecting to work with more than 500 households.

North Yorkshire County Council, which has so far identified 439 problem families and turned around 82 of them, was yesterday singled out by the Government for praise in the way it is tackling the problem.

The head of the troubled families programme, Louise Casey, said: “North Yorkshire County Council deserves credit for taking up the challenge of the Troubled Families programme and achieving results so quickly.

“By dealing with all the family members and all of their problems in a tough and intensive way we are finally getting to grips with problems which may have persisted for generations, giving hope to people who have often been failed in the past and relief for the communities that suffered the effects of their behaviour.”

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