Troubled Rotherham families “turned around” by new scheme

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles (pictured) hailed the progress of the Troubled Families scheme, which he said had successfully turned around the lives of 14,000 of England’s “toughest to tackle” households.

Rotherham Borough Council was asked to help identify families in need of assistance where children were playing truant, adults were on benefits and the burden on the taxpayer was too great.

In Rotherham, 680 were earmarked for inclusion in the scheme, and of the 326 contacted by programme workers, 88 were said to have been “turned around”.

Mr Pickles said: “The figures show that our no-nonsense and common sense approach is changing these families for the better and benefiting the whole community.

“Considering the often longstanding and deep-seated nature of these families’ problems, it is a huge achievement to have turned so many around in such a short space of time.

“And instead of several costly services working with the same family but failing to solve the underlying problems, this approach is both more effective for the family and cheaper, too.”