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Troubled Families Annual Report

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (James Brokenshire) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

As required by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, section 3(1), my Department has published the third annual report, setting out how the Troubled Families Programme (2015-2020) has been supporting disadvantaged families. We are laying this report today and will place a copy in the House of Commons library.

This notice details what the report covers, for the period up to the end of March 2019, as well as for the next financial year, including setting out which families are eligible for the programme and how the progress of families will be measured.

‘Building Resilient Families: Third annual report of the Troubled Families Programme 2018/19’ details how the programme is spreading whole family working across local services so more families get access to the early, practical and coordinated support they need to overcome their complex problems.

This programme of whole family working has achieved significant progress over the past twelve months:

• Local authorities have been funded to work in a whole family way with 380,426 families in most need of help as part of the programme. However, we know that local authorities are working in a whole family way with a far greater number of families.

• 171,890 families have achieved significant and sustained progress against the problems that were identified when they entered the programme. This is up 79,645 on the previous year.

• Of all families worked with since the beginning of the programme, in 20,366 families one or more adults have succeeded in moving into continuous employment. An increase of 6,459 since last year.

When compared to a matched comparison group, the programme of targeted intervention was found to have:

• reduced the proportion of children on the programme going into care by a third
• reduced the proportion of adults on the programme going to prison by a quarter and juvenile convictions by 15%
• supported more people on the programme back in work with 10 per cent fewer people claiming Jobseekers Allowance

Families classed as ‘relevant households’ on the programme, as defined by section 3 of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, are tackling at least 2 of the following challenges:

• Parents or children involved in crime or anti-social behaviour
• Children who are not attending school regularly
• Children who need help; that is children of all ages who need help, are identified as in need or are subject to a child protection plan
• Adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion or young people at risk of worklessness
• Families affected by domestic violence and abuse
• Parents or children with a range of physical and mental health problems

The rationale for these eligibility criteria and an explanation of the way in which local authorities should identify families using a range of indicators, suggested referral routes and information sources were set out in the refreshed version of the Financial Framework, published on 8 December 2017. The Financial Framework also sets out how the progress of families supported will be measured.