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This time family support must be different

Action for Children

3 min read Partner content

The head of the Government's Troubled Families Unit is determined that the current push to support high risk families "has to be different" this time.

In the week that the Government has announced an expansion of its Troubled Families programme, the head of the scheme has stated its new approach to supporting high risk families “is working, and we are proving it is working.”

The Director General of the Trouble Families Unit in the Department of Communities and Local Government, Louise Casey, spoke at a ‘breakfast briefing’ being hosted by Action for Childrenon Thursday, where she emphasised how steadfast the children’s charity had been in its support for families targeted by the programme; families that she says had been “having problems for years, causing problems for years and using services for years.”

On-going misery and disfunction in such families has led to most losing hope in the care system, Casey says, with previous changes to the system resulting in “state responses” to issues, rather than more sensible “human responses”.

“Mothers are being assessed for being unfit parents, without being helped to become fit parents” she says, but “this time it has to be different.”

The Troubled Families programme’s focus on providing a single care worker, dedicated to each family is key, Casey explains. “One plan; one worker; one message going into the family” is crucial.

Earlier this week the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, announced an additional investment of £200 million to the programme from 2015. This will extend intensive help to 400,000 high risk families to get to grips with their problems.

The scheme’s success lies in how it allows family support groups to think and act outside the box, agrees Avril McIntyre, the chair of the Family Breakdown Working Group for the Centre of Social Justice.

McIntyre admits to being sceptical of the programme when it was first announced, but says the flexibility it allows to “see what works” is genuinely exciting:

“This is an opportunity. Let’s make sure we don’t miss it.”

Casey and McIntyre both welcomed a joint reportpublished by Action for Childrenand Loughborough University this week, which shows that intensive family support, which provides 1-2-1 support to troubled families, improved school attendance in two-thirds of children being supported and reduced young offending rates in nearly 70% of 11-16 year olds.

Samantha McDermid, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Child and Family Research at Loughborough, explains that the same support prevented children and young people from entering care, avoiding costs of up to £130,471 per family. To achieve real financial and social benefits, social care interventions and preventing entry to care is key, she says.

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