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THE TROUBLED FAMILIES AGENDA - WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN
This Adfam/DrugScope brieng aims to
explain and explore the Government’s
troubled families policy agenda and the
corresponding programme of work. Much
has been discussed in political and public
debate recently, but the details have
sometimes been unclear. The high prole
attention given to families with multiple
needs is welcomed by those who have long
worked to support them, including those
families affected by drug and alcohol use.
The strategic direction promised by the
Government is certainly needed in this
time of decreased budgets and increased
localism, both to aid local authorities in their
work supporting families and to convince
the various sectors involved to work
together to support families in need.
The troubled families agenda -
what does it all mean
April 2012
What is a ‘troubled family’
Troubled families rst appeared in a speech by
David Cameron in December 2011, in which
he stated that ‘last year the state spent an
estimated £9 billion on just 120,000 families,
around £75,000 per family. Our heart tells us
we can’t just stand by while people live these
lives and cause others so much misery. Our
head tells us we can’t afford to keep footing
the monumental bills for social failure. So we
have got to take action to turn troubled families
around.’
1
Following that speech, the Department for
Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
described these families as having ‘serious
problems’ including parents not working,
mental ill health and children not in school,
and causing crime and anti-social behaviour.
Using this description, troubled families have
two characteristics: they face multiple, inter-
related social issues likely to lead to poorer
outcomes; and they cause problems for
others.
In March 2012 the DCLG’s The Troubled
Families programme: Financial framework
for the payment-by-results scheme for local
authorities updated the description by dening
troubled families as those households which:
1. are involved with crime and anti-social
behaviour (ASB)
2. have children not in school
3. have an adult on out of work benets
4. cause high costs to the public purse
. 2
This denition is a crystallisation of the initial
statements on the DCLG’s website. Whilst
crime/ASB, truancy and unemployment are
identied as the three main characteristics
of troubled families, the much broader ‘high
costs’ criterion (or ‘lter’) is designed to give
local authorities some exibility in identifying
families with other needs.
‘It is up to you to consider with local partners,
such as health, police and other what
the range of issues is that you will use to
prioritise and how to identify the families’,
the DCLG guidance says, before suggesting
‘families containing a child who is on a Child
1 ‘Tackling Troubled Families: New Plans Unveiled’, available at www.number10.gov.uk/news/tackling-troubled-fami-
lies-new-plans-unveiled
2 The Troubled Families programme – Financial framework for the Troubled Families programme’s payment-by-results
scheme for local authorities, DCLG
