 |
 | This article needs to be updated.(April 2019) |
The Troubled Families programme is a UK Government scheme under the Department for Communities and Local Government with the stated aim of helping troubled families turn their lives around. [1]
|
| This article needs to be updated.(April 2019) |
The Troubled Families programme is a UK Government scheme under the Department for Communities and Local Government with the stated aim of helping troubled families turn their lives around. [1]
The Troubled Families programme was launched by the former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011. Louise Casey became Director General, Troubled Families on 1 November 2011. [2] The programme initially intends to change the repeating generational patterns of poor parenting, abuse, violence, drug use, anti-social behaviour and crime in the most troubled families in the UK, with the government investing some £4,000 per family over 3 years, and each family having an assigned family worker. [3] Troubled families are defined as those that have problems and cause problems to the community around them, putting high costs on the public sector. The aim is to get 120,000 troubled families in England turn their lives around by 2015 and in particular to:
Mental health problems are often found in such families. [3] David Cameron summarised the nature of the families in his Oldbury speech (New Statesman, 15.12.11) saying
'...these families are the source of a large proportion of the problems in society. Drug addiction. Alcohol abuse. Crime. A culture of disruption and irresponsibility that cascades down the generations... a small number of these families cost an extraordinary amount of money. Last year £9 billion was spent on 120,000 families'.
Although the TFP was supposedly aimed at intensive support the political rhetoric was often pejorative. Louise Casey, the 'Troubled Families Tsar' told the Daily Telegraph (20.07.12)
'We are not running some cuddly social workers programme...we should be talking about things like shame and guilt...we have lost the ability to be judgmental because we worry about being seen as nasty to poor people'.
However most of the people targeted were not involved in crime or anti-social behaviour; most were not alcohol or drug dependent. Most were poor, unemployed and with very high levels of mental / physical illnesses and disabilities in adults and children which resulted in high state support costs (see characteristics section). It is unclear how assertive, non-negotiable intervention and benefit sanctions can eliminate these costs. The evidence for long term success in 'turning around the families' is absent and on 12.06.14 Casey told a meeting at Reform
'As hard as it is to accept, the truth is despite our best efforts over many years - and I include myself in that - we just haven't got it right. We haven't succeeded in getting these families to change or in stopping the transmission of problems from generation to generation - we just haven't.
Many areas of England and Wales have renamed their local Troubled Families programmes, including Families First in Gloucestershire and Wales, Building Resilient Families and Communities (BRFC) in Staffordshire, and Think Family in Birmingham [4] [5]
The family-intervention approach used by the programme has been criticised by Stephen Crossley and Michael Lambert, who say that the evidence suggests that the approach does not work well. [6]
Troubled families, according to anecdotal evidence collected by Casey from family interviews, are characterized by inter-generational transmission, large numbers of children, shifting family make-up, dysfunctional relationships and unhelpful family and friends, abuse, institutional care, teenage mothers, early signs of poor behaviour, troubles at school, anti-social behaviour, mental illness (particularly depression, impeding ability to function in life), and drugs & alcohol use. [3]
The definitive report, 'National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme' found that 49% of those in the program were lone parent families. Underage pregnancy was statistically insignificant, with the under-18 conception rate at 2%. 90% of adults had not been convicted of a criminal offence and 93% of adults had no record of anti-social behaviour. Among children, 88% of children had no record of anti-social behaviour. 3% of adults were recorded as treated for alcohol dependency and a further 3% of adults for drug dependency. The families were reported to suffer from high levels of health problems and disabilities. 46% had an adult or adults suffering a mental health problem; 33% of children had mental health problems. 32% of adults and 20% of children had a long-standing physical illness or disability; 39% had a child or children with SEN statements; 46% had a child with school problems; 15% had a child with a temporary exclusion. The families were also poor and in social housing: 74% of households were workless; 83% received out of work benefits; 27% were in rent arrears; 21% were at risk of eviction. The statistical characteristics shared by most families were poverty, unemployment, illness and disability and a high welfare cost to the state.
By November 2013 some 22,000 families had been 'turned round', based on metrics such as child school attendance and crimes committed, [7] [8] although at least some of these families continue to commit some crimes.[ citation needed ]
Casey does not believe people undertake behaviours to gain benefits, and that compulsory contraception, whilst reducing the number of children being born into such families, would lead to high-risk teens finding "something else to get into trouble with. Because they've got trouble in their souls, trouble in their heart, troubles in their head. So even if you brought in some draconian thing like that, they'd find something else to do that would actually be an expression of not having enough love or of having too much pain." [9] But consider also Casey's and Pickles' comments in the introduction.
By March 2015 the Dept. for Communities and Local Government was claiming that 105,671 families of 117,910 processed had been 'turned around', some 89.6%. 8.9% of families had a member who had found a job. It could not be proved that the projects had achieved this. 80.7% had met the 'crime/ASB/education' target. However, only 7% of adults and 12% of children at project entry had an anti-social behaviour intervention. Only 10% of adults at entry had a proved offence (National Evaluation of the TFP, 2014). It must be concluded that most of the 80.7% families 'turned around' involved reduced truancy, not crime or ASB. According to the Dept. for Communities claims, each family cost the state £26,000 per annum at entry to the programme. The estimated average cost saving at exit was claimed to be £11,200 per family. This implies that although 89.6% of families had been 'turned around', 56.9% of the original family costs were still there (Troubled Families, Green Man Books, 2015, ISBN 978-1514170588).
The 120,000 troubled families allegedly cost the state £9 billion per annum according to Cameron, Pickles and Casey at programme start up. However, Pickles told the House of Commons on 15.03.15 that £1.2 billion per annum would be saved. This was a hypothetical number based on assumptions that alleged improvements in behaviour would be sustained and depended on removing the high costs associated with disabled children and chronically sick, unemployed adults (Troubled Families, Green Man Books, 2015, ISBN 978-1514170588). Pickles was challenged about the numbers in the House by Hilary Benn MP. Pickles responded
'The Rt. Hon. gentleman made a number of points on how we can demonstrate success and square the £1.2 billion with the £9 billion...this is notoriously difficult because governments of all types are absolutely terrible at measuring outcomes'
DCLG published that 99% of the troubled families had been turned around by May 2015, with 132 of the 152 local authorities having turned around 100% of local troubled families and only two having a success rate under 90%. [10] However, Louise Casey had stated to the Public Accounts Committee that the programme had worked with more than the stated total number of troubled families in England, which would increase the denominator for the 99% figure. [11]
In June 2015, Jonathan Portes said of the figure, "I doubt that the North Korean statistical office would have the cheek." [12] The figure was later criticised as misleading by a Public Accounts Committee. [13] [14]
DCLG has published documents to say that the programme saves money for the public sector by preventive action with families who rely heavily on public-sector services. A report in March 2015 claimed that the first programme had saved £1.2 billion, [15] which was quoted in a speech by David Cameron. [16] This figure was criticised as "unadultered fiction" by Jonathan Portes as it was based on data from only seven local authorities and were based on gross (rather than net) savings. [17] Similar criticisms were made by Full Fact [18] and the Daily Mirror. [19]
A later costs report, based on data from 67 local authorities, was published in October 2016 to accompany the evaluation. This found a gross saving of £7,050 per family per year for these councils, and did not make any claims on savings for the programme as a whole. [20]
In June 2013, the UK government announced its intention to extend this intensive help to 400,000 more families, committing £200 million in funding in 2015 to 2016. It expects, for every £4,000 spent on a family, an annual saving of £15,000 in the costs of the police, health and social services in dealing with the family. [7]
An evaluation of the initial programme led by Ecorys was leaked to the BBC in August 2016. [21] The evaluation stated that the programme had made "no discernable impact" on unemployment, truancy or criminality in the treatment families. [21] The BBC said that the report was leaked by a senior civil servant who felt that government officials had suppressed the report because of its negative evaluation. [21] The Department for Communities and Local Government denied this, however. The Guardian also noted the scheme had been set up in the wake of the 2011 England riots and was due to cost 1.3 billion pounds by the end of the expanded programme. [22] The Early Intervention Family called for DCLG to publish the report in full, but the Department replied that the evaluation work was not yet finished. [23]
Writing in the Guardian, Anna Bawden blamed the problems on the use of a payment by results system during a period when local government budgets were being cut and said, "The programme was bound to maximise waste." [24]
Following the leak, the House of Commons's Public Accounts Committee began an investigation and the National Audit Office was asked to provide an update on how money had been spent on the programme. [25]
The Evaluation by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research was published on 17 October 2016. The report found that there had been "no significant impact" of the scheme. [26] A press release from NIESR stated, "we were unable to find consistent evidence that the programme had any significant or systematic impact". [27] The Times reported the following day, "the report was published quietly last night after complaints from Whitehall insiders that it was being suppressed". [28]
On the same day, the Channel 4 series Dispatches broadcast an investigation of the programme that was highly critical of the programme. Interviews with critics of the programme such as Stephen Crossley, Jonathan Portes and Gen Maintland Hudson suggested that the 99% success rate was achieved by councils' classifying minor complaints such as noise as evidence of being a troubled family so that they were more likely to turn the families around and by data matching of families previously worked with before the programme. Dispatches suggested that many of the problems targeted by the programme persisted in areas that claimed to have achieved 100% success. [29]
The Evaluation was published two days before a hearing before the Public Accounts Committee on 19 October. The Public Accounts Committee had expressed concerns to Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for DCLG, on 5 October that the evaluation documents were not provided to the Committee in advance as were requested. [30] On the date of publication, the Committee tweeted followers to help it review the 765 pages of the Evaluation published late that day before the hearing on 19 October. [31]
In response to the finding of "no significant impact" of the scheme, [26] Dame Casey stated: "They (NIESR) had not, frankly, put any of the caveats in the public domain" and that "they have misrepresented their own research". NIESR responded that the caveats had been detailed in their press statement and that DCLG had approved of the press statement before its release. [32]
The PAC published its report on 19 December 2016. They concluded that the delay in publication had been unacceptable, that DCLG had failed to demonstrate that the programme had any significant impact and that the terminology of saying that the families had been "turned around" was misleading given that many of the families had continuing problems after a result had been claimed. [33] [34] The PAC chairwoman, Meg Hillier, commented that the report was "far more serious" than "a slap on the wrist" for ministers. [35]
Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 to 2017. He served in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2010 to 2015. He previously served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2009 to 2010 and was later the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2015 to 2017.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in England that publishes guidelines in four areas:
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the British Government department responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UK's biggest public service department it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. It is the second largest governmental department in terms of employees, and the largest in terms of expenditure (£187bn).
An anti-social behaviour order is a civil order made in Great Britain against a person who had been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour. The orders were introduced by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, and continued in use until repealed in England and Wales by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 on 20 October 2014—although they continue to be used in Scotland. ASBOs were replaced in England and Wales by the civil injunctions and the criminal behaviour orders. They were designed to address behaviours like intimidation, drunkenness, and violence by individuals and families, using civil orders rather than criminal sanctions. The orders restricted behaviour in some way, such as: prohibiting a return to a certain area or shop; or restricting public behaviours, such as swearing or drinking alcohol. Many saw the ASBOs as connected with young delinquents.
Jobcentre Plus is a brand used by the Department for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
Care in the Community is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional care was the target of widespread criticism during the 1960s and 1970s, but it was not until 1983 that the government of Margaret Thatcher adopted a new policy of care after the Audit Commission published a report called 'Making a Reality of Community Care' which outlined the advantages of domiciliary care.
Child neglect is a form of abuse, an act of caregivers that results in depriving a child of their basic needs, such as the failure to provide adequate supervision, health care, clothing, or housing, as well as other physical, emotional, social, educational, and safety needs. All societies have established that there are necessary behaviors a caregiver must provide in order for a child to develop physically, socially, and emotionally. Causes of neglect may result from several parenting problems including mental disorders, unplanned pregnancy, substance use disorder, unemployment, overemployment, domestic violence, and, in special cases, poverty.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry. It came into existence during late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005. Its purpose is to deliver the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in a safe and cost-effective manner, and where possible to accelerate programmes of work that reduce hazard. The NDA does not directly manage the UK's nuclear sites. It oversees the work through contracts with specially designed companies known as site licence companies. The NDA determines the overall strategy and priorities for managing decommissioning.
The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to more than 130,000 projects in the UK.
An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. Most academies are secondary schools, though slightly more than 25% of primary schools.
Sure Start is a UK Government area-based initiative, announced in 1998 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, applying primarily in England with slightly different versions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The initiative originated from HM Treasury, with the aim of "giving children the best possible start in life" through improvement of childcare, early education, health and family support, with an emphasis on outreach and community development.
The Audit Commission was a statutory corporation in the United Kingdom. The commission's primary objective was to appoint auditors to a range of local public bodies in England, set the standards for auditors and oversee their work. The commission closed on 31 March 2015, with its functions being transferred to the voluntary, not-for-profit or private sector.
The Respect agenda was launched in September 2005 by Tony Blair, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Tony Blair described it as being about "putting the law-abiding majority back in charge of their communities". Its aim was to help central government, local agencies, local communities, and citizens to tackle anti-social behaviour collaboratively and more effectively. In a speech in January 2006, Tony Blair acknowledged that Respect owed much to the work of sociologist Richard Sennett, particularly his 2003 book Respect: The Formation of Character in a World of Inequality.
Obesity in the United Kingdom is a significant contemporary health concern, with authorities stating that it is one of the leading preventable causes of death. In February 2016, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described rising rates of childhood obesity as a "national emergency". The National Childhood Measurement Programme, which measures obesity prevalence among school-age pupils in reception class and year 6, found obesity levels rocketed in both year groups by more than 4 percentage points between 2019–20 and 2020–21, the highest rise since the programme began. Among reception-aged children, those aged four and five, the rates of obesity rose from 9.9% in 2019-20 to 14.4% in 2020-21. By the time they are aged 10 or 11, more than a quarter are obese. In just 12 months, the rate is up from 21% in 2019-20 to 25.5% in 2020-21.
In England, social care is defined as the provision of social work, personal care, protection or social support services to children or adults in need or at risk, or adults with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or poverty. The main legal definitions flow from the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, with other provisions covering disability and responsibilities to informal carers. That provision may have one or more of the following aims: to protect people who use care services from abuse or neglect, to prevent deterioration of or promote physical or mental health, to promote independence and social inclusion, to improve opportunities and life chances, to strengthen families and to protect human rights in relation to people's social needs.
Universal Credit is a United Kingdom social security payment. It is means-tested and is replacing and combining six benefits for working-age households with a low income: income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, and Income Support; Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit; and Housing Benefit. An award of UC is made up of different elements, which become payable to the claimant if relevant criteria apply: a standard allowance for singles or couples, child elements and disabled child elements for children in the household, housing cost element, childcare costs element, as well as elements for being a carer or having an illness or disability and therefore having limited capability to work.
The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a voluntary personal and social development programmer for 15–17 year olds in England and Northern Ireland, funded largely by money from the UK Government. It was formally announced in 2010 by Prime Minister David Cameron as part of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's Big Society initiative, and it was launched in England in 2011. After the 2015 general election, the programme was continued under the Conservative government. In October 2016 Cameron, who had resigned as Prime Minister, became chairman of the NCS Trust's patrons' board. The scheme was made permanent through the National Citizen Service Act 2017.
Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock, is a British government official working in social welfare.
Jonathan Portes is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the School of Politics & Economics of King's College, London and a senior fellow at UK in a Changing Europe.
Sir Philip McDougall Rutnam, is a British former civil servant who served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 2017 until his resignation on 29 February 2020. Prior to this, he was the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport for five years and also Acting Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2010.
{{cite web}}: External link in |title=