Many more families in Haringey will be supported to find employment, stay together and overcome social problems thanks to new funding won by the council.
Haringey has been awarded the money after it was confirmed as one of the top performing local authorities in the DCLG’s Troubled Families Programme – a national scheme designed to help families facing difficulties.
The funding will be used to expand the council’s successful work with vulnerable families, many of whom are dealing with a range of issues that includes school attendance, ill health and anti-social behaviour.
Last year alone the council provided extra support to close to 700 families, promoting community resilience and carefully coordinating the many different services that are available to help families in the borough.
Haringey’s Families First key workers work closely with families on support plans tailored to their individual needs. This approach has helped to improve attendance in schools, reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour and youth offending and offer training and employment opportunities to parents out of work.
Following Haringey’s success in Phase 1 of the programme last year, the Families First team has been strengthened with new key workers in probation, youth offending and pupil referral.
From September Haringey will commence its role as ‘early starter’ in Phase 2 of the Troubled Families Programme.
The council will play a key role in shaping the Troubled Families programme’s evolution, offering advice and feedback to the DCLG and other local authorities based on the experience the council gains as an ‘early starter’.
Cllr Claire Kober, Leader of Haringey Council, said:
“We welcome the fact that our work with local families has been recognised by Government. Our selection as an ‘early starter’ on this programme clearly demonstrates the council’s commitment and ability to prioritise early help and intervention and empower families and communities to better support themselves.
The Haringey Families First team has been working hard to bring together all the various sources of support available to families in one place. Today’s announcement shows that this approach is paying dividends, benefitting not only the families we work with directly, but also the wider community.
We especially look forward to the opportunity of being able to help shape the future development of this national programme by offering our strategic insights to other local authorities.”
ENDS
Further information from the DCLG
At the Spending Review last year it was announced that the Troubled Families programme would be expanded to work with 400,000 more families from 2015-2020, with £200 million funding for 2015-16. The Budget in March 2014 announced that work with up to 40,000 of these families would begin in this financial year.
To be included in the expanded troubled families programme, a family will have to be referred by specialist agencies as having two of the six following problems:
1. Parents and children involved in crime or anti-social behaviour
2. Children who have not been attending school regularly
3. Children who need help
4. Adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion and young people at risk of worklessness
5. Families affected by domestic violence and abuse
6. Parents and children with a range of health problems
Working with existing troubled families teams in councils, the 300 employment advisers will give intensive support to whole families and for the first time track the progress made to get them into jobs. The practical support will include CV writing, job interview skills and highlight training opportunities and job vacancies in the area. They will also put families in contact with local employers. All of this is about demonstrating that there are opportunities for everyone to get into work.
The full list of high-performing local authorities who will begin work with up to 40,000 additional families this year is:
Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Bath and North East Somerset
Blackpool
Bradford
Bristol
Bromley
Calderdale
Derbyshire
Dudley
Durham
Gateshead
Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan)
Greenwich
Haringey
Hartlepool
Havering
Knowsley
Lambeth
Leeds
Leicestershire
Liverpool
Merton
Middlesbrough
Newcastle upon Tyne
North Somerset
North Yorkshire
Oxfordshire
Plymouth
Poole
Redbridge
Redcar and Cleveland
Richmond upon Thames
Sheffield
Southampton
South Gloucestershire
Surrey
Wakefield
Wandsworth
Warwickshire
West Berkshire
West Sussex