Wendy Weal from Interface Associates looks at the development of intensive interventions for families, including the current 'troubled families' programme.

1. Changing Policy Agenda
Intensive Interventions
Wendy Weal
Managing Director
Interface Associates

2. Who are Interface Associates
Members of Family Delivery Team
Responsible for:
• Roll out FIPs
• Think Family reforms
• Training
• Improvement support
Links with central Government
• DfE
• Troubled Families Unit
• DCLG and DH
Expertise and best practice

3. What do Interface Associates do?
National expertise to support local implementation
of policy into practice
Single point contact for support with vulnerable
families across whole Country.
Work Nationally and locally
Influence Policy
Regional network/learning events

4. 2007
Focus on ASB TOGETHER, Respect programme
Create DCSF and Youth Taskforce- September 07
Policy Context
• Every Child Matters
• Aiming high – ten year strategy for positive activities
• Children’s Plan – Government’s ambitions for young people
• Roll out of Extended Schools
Neighbourhood Policing rolled out across the country
Continuing focus on tackling anti-social behaviour –
perceptions of anti-social behaviour

5. Agenda in DCSF
Children's outcomes
Emphasis on effective parenting on outcomes for children.
Impacts on educational attainment
•Parental interest in education is four times more important than SES
factors in influencing attainment at 16
•Parental involvement has a bigger impact on attainment at 7 & 11 than the
quality of the school even controlling for social class
Strong rationale for government intervention to support those
parents who are struggling
And to challenge parents who are unable or unwilling to meet these
responsibilities

6. DCSF Investment
Providing a ring fenced grant (2009-2011) for all authorities to:
Implement ‘Think Family’ reforms to local authority and health
service systems and services;
Offer Parenting Early Intervention Programmes (PEIPs) to help
mothers and fathers of children (aged 8-13) at risk of poor outcomes
improve their parenting skills;
Continue to fund Parenting Experts and Practitioners in all
authorities; and
Set up Youth Crime Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) to provide
intensive support to families in the greatest difficulty.

7. Recognised effectiveness of FIPs
By 2009 (August)
• 128 FIPs delivering support to families
•FIPs supporting 2,796 families
• YCAP funding rolling out FIPs in every local authority would enable,
by 2011, support to be provided to 5,240 families per year.
• Approx. 1/3rd in VCS
Project focus
ASB FIPS
‘Child poverty’ FIPs: tackling child poverty and inter generational
worklessness
‘Youth Crime FIPs’: to prevent offending

8. Think Family Reforms - everybody's business
A series of changes to LA services and systems to:
• Extend the integration of children’s services to all services working
with children, young people & adults
• Ensure that all services working with vulnerable children, young
people and adults consider the family context and:
– Identify families which are at risk and provide support at the earliest
opportunity
– Meet the full-range of needs within each family they are supporting
– Developing services which can respond effectively to the most
challenging families

9. Multiple funding/accountability has resulted in
ineffective and expensive provision
DfE HO MoJ DH CLG DWP
PCT/ GP
LA Police YJB Housing
Consortia JCP
authorities
Prisons /
VCS
Probation
YOS worker
Young carer Police officer CAMHS/
support worker Mental Health Drug and Housing link Employment
Family support Worker alcohol team worker Personal advisers
Parent support workers
advisers/Schools
Surestart
Intensive family
intervention worker/
parenting practitioner
£4bn+ is being spent each year…. Can be as much as £250,000-330,000 per
family per year……

10. But not intervening is costing even more….
Child looked after in secure
Child looked after in accommodation – £134,000
children’s home – £125,000 per year placement costs
Cost per child /
per year placement costs
Cost
Multi-dimensional Treatment
Foster Care – £68,000 per year Costs increase
for total package of support as children get
family
older
Child looked after in foster
care – £25,000 per year
placement costs
Family Intervention Projects –
£8-20,000 per family per year
Multi-Systemic Therapy –
£7-10,000 per year
Parenting programme
(e.g. Triple P) –
£900-1,000 per family
Family Nurse Partnerships –
£3000 per family a year
PEIP – £1,200 -
3,000 per parent
Children’s Centres - around £600 per user
Schools - £5,400 per pupil
Severity of need

11. Agenda Dec 10
PM announcement “I set this ambition: by the end of this
Parliament, I want us to try and turn around every troubled family
in the country.”
Community budgets
Focused on family intervention to facilitate the breaking down
of barriers to support families with multiple problems to enable
local areas to work more effectively with these families, without
duplicating effort and expenditure
Investment to build on current family intervention provision
through an Early Intervention Grant
Trialling new ways of working: Seed funding for exemplar
projects and to support dissemination

12. Agenda September 11
1st April the first phase of Community Budget for families with
multiple problems covered 20% of local authorities
27th May DWP announced that £200m for employment-related
support
29th June the DPM announced that further 50 Community
Budget areas by April 2012 and at 60 more in April 2013.
New Areas to work on plans 72 state interest in CB Phase 2

13. Agenda Nov 11
PM creates new ” Troubled Families Unit” to
“turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families by the
end of this Parliament”
To work with
“ a cohort of families with problems that are being
passed on through the generations; that these families
have members who are often vulnerable and in crisis;
that they often cause problems to others around them,
and that, despite huge efforts put in by so many, they
absorb public services without their problems ever being
fully dealt with”

14. Troubled Families Unit
£448m announced
Funding for coordinators to oversee action in their area.
National push for higher profile.
Offer 40% through Payment by Results based on:
Children back into school;
Reduce their criminal and anti-social behaviour;
Parents on the road back to work, and
Reduce the costs to the taxpayer and local authorities.

15. Definition of troubled family
TFT “A troubled family is one that has serious problems and
causes serious problems. In every troubled family there are a
range of problems including:
 parents not working
 mental health problems
 children not in school
 family causing crime and anti-social behaviour and
 costing local services a lot of time and money routinely
responding to these problems
Areas need to chose the right families for them – DV, mental
health, Substance misuse, edge of care

16. Timeline
January
Each LA asked to identify their families focussing on
 Those not in work
 Children not attending school
 Involved in crime and/or anti-social behaviour
• CLG to provide simple and workable definition to assist LA’s identify
the right families within their current administrative systems
February
• Discussion on agreeing numbers per LA for a baseline figure
• Analysis will be given to CLG

17. Funding for Coordinator’s
National network of Troubled Family Coordinators in
each local council
Operate at a senior level to oversee the programme of
action in their area
Funding weighted in proportion with the number of
families in each local area
Key link person/s for VCS

18. Role of Coordinator’s
Getting a grip on the numbers, names and locations of
the families in their area
Bring together local agencies (e.g. police, job centre
plus, health organisations, schools) to put a robust plan
of action in place to deal with the families
Using the extra money provided to lever in the additional
money and resources needed for their local programme
Track action to ensure the right approach is being taken
with the right families, problems are unblocked
Ensure progress is tracked and monitored and fed back
to the Central Troubled Families Team

19. The “New” Approach
Pace and Scale
 120,000 across the country
 TimeLine for robust and ambitious plans
Focus
 Individual families
 Plans for each family which to map how to “turn around”
 Outcomes- out of crime, back in school and work and costing
less.
Paid for their successes, not failure
Renewed emphasis on getting troubled families into work

20. What works with families

21. Where are Intensive support services now?
De ring-fencing of grants
Seen a move to services not projects
Edge of care emphasis – savings
There are 175 FIP/Services
71 are identified as Services
 12 closing, 6 expanding, 25 reorganising
104 identified as FIPs
 8 have confirmed closure, 9 expanding, 7 reorganising

22. The Future?
Areas in very different positions
Community Budgets? Links to Troubled families – same
or different?
Social Impact Bonds - Essex
Evaluation – SROI/FROI
Payment by Results
What does this mean for families?

23. Wendy.Weal@interfaceassociates.co.uk
www.interfaceassociates.co.uk
07584 314 571