Praise for council on problem families

WARRINGTON Borough Council has won praise from Communities Secretary Eric Pickles for its decision to sign up to the Government’s complex families programme
It is estimated that nationally £8bn of public funding is spent each year reacting to, rather than getting to the root causes of the problems for families experiencing difficulties.
The new programme is being operated on a payment-by-results basis with up to £4,000 for every family that is successfully supported.
This means that up to £1,150,000 will be available to Warrington over the next three years.
About 340 families in the town will be identified for extra help with getting children to attend school, reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour and to help get parents back in to work.
Council leader Terry O’Neill (pictured) said: “A number of our teams and services will be working in partnership with the NHS, Police, Job Centre Plus, the Probation Service and others to provide whole family assessment and intensive co-ordinated tailored packages of support.
“We believe this joint effort and the funding offered will make a real difference in Warrington.”
The government’s £448m three-year budget is drawn from across seven departments in a bid to join up local services dealing with these issues.
Under the scheme families will each get a key worker who will help work through their problems and bring in specialist services as required.
Mr Pickles said: “It is great news that Warrington has agreed to run this programme. Together we can finally tackle a problem that has long been grappled with.
“We now have an opportunity to offer real and lasting change for these families and the communities around them. Everyone will benefit from getting kids off the streets and into school, getting parents off benefits and into work and cutting youth crime and anti-social behaviour.
“But it is also right that we will only pay councils in full if they deliver the results we require.”
Locally work has started among the various partners to identify the families to be targeted for extra help.