The British Government Has A Plan To Fix Homelessness, Mental Health, And Domestic Abuse

Up to £165 million new funding to help families get their lives back on track announced.

Families with deep-rooted problems will receive much-needed support to get their lives back on track with up to £165 million of new funding, Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP announced today (5 January 2020).

The funding for the Troubled Families program will provide intensive support for some of the most vulnerable families.

Working with the whole family unit across local services, with a focus on early intervention, the program has a proven track record of driving reforms across public services.

The funding will be used to tackle complex inter-connected problems including unemployment, poor school attendance, mental health issues, anti-social behaviour, and domestic abuse. 

Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

The Troubled Families programme will help more people in need get access to the early, practical and coordinated support to transform their lives for the better.

This is the right thing to do for families and for society as a whole, and these reforms will reduce the demand and dependency on costly, reactive key public services.

We want to build on the success of the programme in the coming year, delivering on our manifesto commitment to ensure we reach all those who could benefit from the programme – from the early years and throughout their lives.

Rather than responding to each problem, or single family member separately, assigned Troubled Families keyworkers engage with the whole family. Through this approach, they coordinate support from a range of services to identify and address family issues as early as possible rather than merely reacting to crises.

The latest evaluation results show that, compared to families with similar characteristics who have not been on the program, 19-24 months after starting to receive support:  

• the proportion of children on the program going into care has reduced by a third
• the proportion of adults on the program going to prison has reduced by a quarter and juvenile convictions reduced by 15%
• more people on the program are back in work, with 10% fewer people claiming Jobseekers Allowance.

The program was originally set to run for 5 years from 2015 to 2020 but was extended by a year in Spending Round 2019. Today £165 million of funding has been confirmed for 2020 to 2021. 

Since the current program began in 2015, 297,733 families have made improvements with the problems that led to them joining the program. In 26,848 of these families one or more adults have moved off benefits and into work.