Whitehall watching as county programme turns troubled families around

The low key success since 2012 of the Families First  programme - with Herefordshire Council as lead partner - could advise the extended national Troubled Families programme when it rolls out across the country next year.

That success was put to the county’s health and wellbeing board this week.

Members reinforced their commitment to the programme which has helped support 242 families against a target of 310 by March next year.

That commitment now goes to cabinet for support.

Out of that 242, 204 families have reduced the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that brought them to the programme’s attention and their children are attending school regularly.

Another 38 adults are back into work with a further 57 on a work programme which is helping them to towards employment.

In addition, the programme has brought £1.13 million of funding to the county to be spent on support for families needing help.

As of September, an analysis of the issues faced by families in the Herefordshire programme shows:

38% hit the crime and anti-social behaviour criteria.

42% hit the school attendance criteria.

28% hit the out of work criteria.

43% have domestic abuse in the household.

39% have mental health issues within the household.

36% of families identified as part of the programme have had a child assessed as a child in need under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989.

35% have drug / alcohol misuse issues.

26% have housing / homelessness issues.

20% of children subject to child protection (CP) plans

By the end of the first phase of the programme in March, the aim is to have “turned  around” 310 families and secured £1.21million in grant funding.

The Families First programme is the county’s local branding of the national Troubled Families initiative that identifies families with a range of issues affecting both children and adults in the household.

Locally, the aim is to “turn around” the most chaotic and challenging families within the county to improve outcomes for the family, the wider community, and overall service demand.

Although not confirmed, Herefordshire’s target is likely to be around 1,000 families over the lifetime of the extended programme or around 200 families a year.

That represents a significant increase on the programme’s current profile and planning for this already underway.

Based on the likely target, total grant funding that could be secured is estimated to be £2.6 million over the five years of the programme.

This funding, and the framework of the programme, are pitched as creating “real opportunities” to move away from high cost, high intervention services that often intervene too late to make a long term difference as issues with target families become entrenched and tough to retract from.

The fact that Herefordshire has now achieved 78% of its target, means the county programme can join the extended programme as soon as January.

By joining early, the county’s experience can not only help to inform the final programme, but can start workingwith families within much broader, locally defined criteria and secure a further £19,000 in funding.

The Health and Wellbeing board heard that approval to join the extended programme does require “a certain amount of data and reporting.”

A small programme team currently in place needs additional capacity and capability around ICT, analysis and costing.

Talks with finance and performance teams within Children’s Wellbeing Directorate and the strategic intelligence team in public health are already underway.

Further funding was at risk had the board not backed the programme.

Currently, £298,000 of Troubled Families grant is used to fund family support services within Children’s Wellbeing.

While this level of funding will need to be reviewed as part of the changes to the service, the loss of this funding would, in turn, would see the loss of 10 family support workers with the resulting impact on the families they work with.

Troubled Families – achievements to date

242 families “turned around” against a target of 310 by March 2015.

£1.13m grant funding brought into the county.

Improved partnership working and information sharing to target families, particularly work with Job Centre Plus and the work  programme delivered by Herefordshire Housing that has helped 38 adults back into work with a further 57 progressing towards work.

Additional services in place including a dedicated Children’s Independent Domestic Violence Advisor within Women’s Aid and more counselling services for children and young people affected by domestic violence.

Agreement on the need for a “family lead” in the council’s Adults Wellbeing directorate to ensure the needs of children are also addressed.

The launch of the Families First Grant Funding scheme, with the first round of funding applications received from local community groups.