East London News A Force for the community…
More than 1,000 families’ lives have been transformed thanks to a pioneering scheme begun under Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Administration. The milestone was celebrated on 2nd July, the third anniversary of a major conference the Troubled Families (TF) Programme held to share the good practice it had developed with other agencies.
It was also the exactly three weeks since John Biggs had been elected to replace Lutfur Rahman, and he lost no time in finding a few words to praise what the scheme had done and – correctly – to thank staff who have done the work over the last three years. “The Troubled Families programme is an excellent initiative which has made a real difference to families who are the most vulnerable and feel they have no one to turn to. Our committed staff and partners have done an amazing job to give families a better chance in life than they had before,” he said. He did not waste time acknowledging that the programme had been built up during Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Administration.
The TF programme is required to meet tough government targets, and the scheme has come under criticism nationally because it is possible to meet the targets without doing any lasting good. However, Tower Hamlets has embraced the spirit of the programme as well as the letter and has used it as an opportunity to make sure it is taking a holistic approach to people with problems. It has also understood the point that spending resources at the point when they are needed is important because it saves so much anguish and misery in sorting out problems which would be more costly to solve if they were left to grow.
The Council addresses the problems faced by families in the TF programme by assigning a lead professional to work closely with that family taking a whole family approach. The worker will then liaise with other professionals who are involved with the family and work with them to solve their problems. For example, the lead officer may accompany adults to meetings at school about truancy or poor school attendance, offer the family support to help them understand the importance of school and education – and then help the family’s parents produce CVs and search for work.
Tower Hamlets faced a huge problem: government figures show that 1,120 families were identified as being in need of intervention in Tower Hamlets – the highest figure in the London boroughs. However, every one of these families has been officially “turned around”, meaning children are now regularly attending school and parents are back in work and adults and/or children are no longer involved in crime or anti-social behaviour. The TF programme is now moving into the second phase, during which it hopes to work with a further 3,980 families over the next five years.
Louise Casey, Director General of the national programme said: “I was absolutely delighted to see that Tower Hamlets fulfilled their commitment to turn around 1,120 troubled families by May 2015. These are all families where kids are back in school and youth crime and anti-social behaviour has been cut, and in more and more of these homes an adult has now moved off benefits and into work. This is fantastic news both for families and for services.
“It’s also a great foundation for Tower Hamlet’s work on the new Troubled Families Programme which will target nearly 4,000 families in the borough with a wider range of problems such as debt, drug and alcohol addiction, mental and physical health problems and children under five. The new Troubled Families programme will work with up to 400,000 more families across England over the next five years.”
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Case Study
Single parent dad with four children between the ages of seven and 13
Situation:
The family had been involved in a difficult and acrimonious divorce and custody battle for the children. The father had won custody but then had to give up his job to take on full time caring responsibilities of the children.
The children were showing signs of emotional distress in the forms of nightmares and behavioural challenges at school following the custody battle. The father was in receipt of state benefits while he was unemployed: however, the benefits stopped, leaving the family very vulnerable.
As the father left work voluntarily, the family faced further disruption through the threat of eviction.
Work with the family and results:
The case was referred to Tower Hamlets Council’s Family Intervention Programme (FIP) and the FIP worker took on the lead professional role undertaking a holistic, whole family approach.
This identified difficulties the children were experiencing and the effects on their schooling and agreed to also focus on stabilising the housing situation and supporting dad to find a job.
The FIP worker worked intensively with the family, sometimes visiting up to three times a week and liaising with partner agencies to support the family through this difficult time.
This included working with the benefits agency to reinstate their benefits; supporting the family to engage in family therapy with the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to resolve issues relating to the divorce and custody battle and offer parenting support.
Working with the father to improve his employability skills and identifying job opportunities. Housing Options were also involved in identifying further properties where the family could be rehoused.
Results:
The father successfully secured employment for 20 hours a week, which allowed flexibility to parent the family. The family were evicted from their property but were rehoused within the borough.
The children have been able to maintain their education within their original schools. The have all benefitted from the support from CAMHS as they feel more secure in the new family arrangement.
The partnership work undertaken, led by the FIP worker has enabled this whole family to stay together and navigate a very challenging time back to a stable family atmosphere where they no longer need ongoing intervention.
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