Troubled Families programme brought to Rochdale

Rochdale, along with all eligible councils, will be running the Government’s Troubled Families programme. This will affect 675 families within the Rochdale borough; however more families may be identified by 2013/14. It is a result based funding scheme, so there is an important financial incentive for these families to achieve.

The total possible payment by results share for Rochdale is £2,250,000 and the total coordinator allocation over three years is £300,000.

In total, the Government's £448m three-year budget will help the lives of 120,000 families across the UK. These families have been characterised by the government by there being no adult in the family working, children not being in school and family members being involved in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Resources have been put in place to incentivise and encourage local authorities and their partners to develop new ways of working with families, which focus on lasting change. It has been recognised that these approaches are likely to incur extra costs but that they will result in a shift in the way local authorities work with families in the future, which will reduce overall costs and improve outcomes.

Rather than simply reacting to these families problems, this scheme will tackle the root causes of the problems in order to improve lives of those involved. The scheme will do this by getting children off the streets and back into school; reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour; and putting adults on a pathway back to work.

Community Secretary, Eric Pickles said: "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 that we require."

It is estimated that the total of these families put a £9bn drain on public spending, amounting to £75,000 per family per year. These families cost local services a huge amount of money and it is hoped that this long term plan will change this.