Almost 1,300 'troubled' families on Teesside have lives 'turned around' thanks to Government programme

A programme to support the hardest to help households has “turned around” nearly 1,300 families on Teesside, a Government minister has claimed.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced that 1,293 of Teesside’s worst problem families are among 85,000 nationally to have been helped.

The coalition Government set up a national Troubled Families programme in 2012 and under the scheme, councils receive funding if they tackle problems such as truancy, anti-social behaviour and youth crime.

Of the 570 families identified as “troubled” in Middlesbrough, 532 were turned around, according to new figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Councillor Brenda Thompson, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive member for supporting communities, said: “The scheme is doing wonderful work in giving assistance to a great number of families in the town.

“We are really pleased with the progress being made and are sure the benefit is already being seen both by the community at large and - most importantly - those families receiving the help.

“Great strides have been made in such a short space of time and we look forward to continuing this progress.”

In Stockton, there were 356 successes from 455 “troubled” families and in Redcar and Cleveland, all 405 families identified as troubled were turned around.

The programme was launched in all three local authority areas after Louise Casey, head of the Troubled Families programme, visited Middlesbrough in 2011.

She said: “To have turned around the lives of over 85,000 troubled families - who have an average of nine serious problems each - in two and a half years is a credit to the councils, the frontline staff and most of all to the families themselves. This programme works because it is joined up and it seeks to simplify things rather than make them more complicated. It focuses on whatever it takes to do what really matters: getting kids into school, the toughest families out of trouble with the police and adults into a position where they can find a job.”