Plymouth chosen as Early Starter to roll out national scheme to help families

Plymouth has been recognised among the top third of local authorities for its work in offering intensive support to local families, and selected to help lead the way in the roll out of a future national programme.

Plymouth City Council’s Families with a Future programme was launched in 2012 as part of the national Troubled Families initiative. Families with a Future helps families with serious problems including parents out of work, mental health problems and truancy, and ones that cause issues such as crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Government is now expanding the scheme for 51 ‘Early Starter’ local authorities, to include children aged under five, and to include families with physical and mental health issues. It will also address problems such as domestic violence, debt and children at risk of being taken into care. Nationally, 71% of families identified have a physical health problem, and 46% have a mental health concern.

As one of the chosen authorities, Plymouth will start the new work ahead of a five year national programme which will roll out in 2015.

Councillor Pete Smith, Deputy Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “We are delighted that Plymouth has received national recognition for our Families with a Future programme and that we are being selected as an ‘Early Starter’ for the next phase.

“Since launching the scheme in Plymouth in 2012, the Council has identified 745 families in need of the support and as of March 2014, the Council had worked with 710 families. Under the scheme we helped 426 families whose lives have been “turned around”.

“It is great news that the scheme is being expanded to include children aged under-five and recognise the impact of health and social issues on people’s lives. This dovetails very well with our focus on early intervention and prevention, which needs to be at the heart of how we transform services.

“We are also very proud of the families themselves who have taken part in this scheme.”

It is estimated that the families involved with the scheme cost the taxpayer an average of £75,000 per year. Up until now, families have been deemed as ‘turned around’ under the scheme if the following three criteria have been met:

• children are back in school for three consecutive terms where they were previously truant or excluded
• high levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour have been significantly reduced
• and/or adults that were on benefits have been in work for at least three months

The early intervention and prevention work includes key workers who go out into the community to support the most vulnerable families. By helping people and families early on, this can help children stay with their families and prevent their problems reaching a crisis point.

Head of the Government’s Troubled Families programme Louise Casey CBE said: “Families with an average of nine different serious problems need help that gets in through the front door of their home and to the heart of what is really going on in their lives. The Troubled Families programme has been able to do that by taking a ‘tough love’ approach and dealing with the whole family and all of its problems. This has been the start of a revolution in the way that we work with our most challenging families and which we need to accelerate in the years ahead.”