The Connecting Families initiative – run by the Council to help people deal with serious issues affecting their home lives – has had a major positive impact on the lives of 18 families from April to September 2013.
The progress of the programme by the Council and its partner organisations means that: children are back in school where they were previously playing truant or excluded; high levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour are down; adults are getting off benefits and into work; and the costs to local public services and burden on the taxpayer are being reduced too.
Bath & North East Somerset Council has now identified 138 of the hardest to help families who will be given for extra support by the programme. These families are already being worked with and the scheme remains on track to meet the Council’s target of making a difference to 215 families in Bath and North East Somerset by 2015.
The Prime Minister David Cameron has praised the work of Bath & North East Somerset Council in implementing the payment-by-results programme and said the results showed that no family was beyond help.
Mr Cameron said: “I am determined that we help people to get on in life including those families where things may be going wrong. For some, that starts with attending school every day, staying out of trouble with the police and taking practical steps towards work, just as other families do. Every month, more and more of the most troubled families are getting help to deal with these issues head-on in Bath and North East Somerset Council. That is good for those families, your community and our country as a whole.”
Councillor Paul Crossley (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Leader of Council, said: “We’re pleased that the Government recognises the very good work being undertaken by Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Connecting Families team to focus on ‘early help’ and ensure that families get early support to meet their needs before problems become entrenched.
“Our approach is to ensure that each family has a named key worker to bring together the services and agencies that can help them; work with the family to decide on key changes that are needed; draw up an action plan and crucially provide practical hands on support.”
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Connecting Families initiative is already seeing the benefits of this way of working together with families. In one case, a young person not attending school is now attending regularly and in another a mother has secured a job, her first job in 16 years. In both cases these are a direct result of a member of the Connecting Families team providing support.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “The figures show that our no-nonsense and common sense approach is changing these families for the better and benefiting the whole community in Bath and North East Somerset. Considering the often longstanding and deep-seated nature of these families’ problems, it is a huge achievement to have turned so many around in such a short space of time. And instead of several costly services working with the same family but failing to solve the underlying problems, this approach is both more effective for the family and cheaper too.”
Head of the Government’s Troubled Families programme Louise Casey CB said: “Bath & North East Somerset Council deserves credit for taking up the challenge of the Troubled Families programme and achieving results so quickly. By dealing with all the family members and all of their problems in an intensive way we are finally getting to grips with problems which may have persisted for generations, giving hope to people who have often been failed in the past and relief for the communities that suffered the effects of their behaviour.”