What can we learn from the Troubled Families programme in ...
Transcript of What can we learn from the Troubled Families programme in ...
What can we learn from the Troubled Families programme
in England?
Rhian Stone
Charlotte Waite
SOLAS
Cymorth Homeless Symposium
October 14th 2015
TF arose from family Intervention Projects
Family Intervention projects: 2007-2011 under
Blair’s respect agenda
NCH model intensive family engagement
“Set up to work with some of the most troubled
and challenging families to tackle ASB, Youth
Crime, Intergenerational disadvantage and
worklessness, homlessness”
Profile – disadvantage
64% lone families
88% white
51% - 3+ children under 18
3/4 workless households
32% 1+ child SEN
67% poor parenting
32% Domestic Violence
30% child protection
Successful outcomes
Duration – 11months; 9 hours a week
– 12,850 families
– Reductions in;
– ASB -60%
– Crime -65%
– Drug misuse – 50%
– Alcohol- 55%
– Truancy/exclusion- 57%
Troubled families launched - 2011
• New coalition government
• Response to the riots
• Language changes – more punitive
“these families are the source of a large proportion of problems in society. Drug addiction. Alcohol abuse. Crime. A culture of disruption and irresponsibility that cascades down the generations ....a small number of families costs an extraordinary amount of money. Last year £9 billion spent on 120,000”
David Cameron
What is a Troubled Family?
• Are involved in youth crime or ASB
• Children truanting regularly/ not in school
• An adult on ‘out of work benefits’
• High costs for the tax payer
152 top tier authorities
448 million
120,000 families
Payment by results
£4000 per family – proportion paid upfront
Learning for us in Wales
Intensive family engagement models work – how
can we make this happen without huge
government investment?
Serious criticisms of the payment by results
approach and outcomes reported
Easily applied to Wales with creative thinking and
agency buy in – especially housing
Troubled Families
• “a culture of disruption and irresponsibility that cascades through generations” (David Cameron)
ASB –the national context
• Police recorded incidents of ASB have shown
year on year declines from 3.2. million incidents
in 2010/2011 to 2 million end March 2015
• 28% of adults indicated they had personally
experienced or witnessed ASB problems in the
year ending March 2015
• ASB is still a significant issue impacting on
individuals and communities.
The SOLAS Enhanced Support Team was established
in 2010 in South East Wales: to reduce anti social
behaviour in households were the behaviour was so
challenging that the family were at risk of either losing
their home and/or children were at risk of being
accommodated by the local authority.
We work with the hardest to reach families who currently
cost statutory services huge amounts in agency time,
care and criminal proceedings, police call outs,
evictions, legal proceedings etc. If problems are
unaddressed the cost to agencies of long term
intergenerational problems is on such a scale
it’s hard to quantify.
The Housing (Wales) Act 2014
• The main objective of the law is to ensure people
who are homeless or facing homelessness
receive help as early as possible. It places a duty
on local authorities to work with people who are
at risk of losing their home within 56 days to help
find a solution to their problems. It is hoped the
new provisions will prevent 3 out of 4 people at
risk of homelessness from losing their home.
The Housing (Wales) Act 2014
• Everything must be done to avoid an unplanned
move from adequate accommodation and to
ensure people can act in a planned way to
improve their housing circumstances.
• The prevention agenda is not new: Wales
achieved a small reduction in homelessness
levels since 2012, despite adverse housing
market conditions and welfare benefit changes.
CURRENT FUNDERS
The service is a joint Charter Housing and SOLAS project and is currently funded by a mixture of local authorities and social landlords.
(MHA, Charter, Monmouth and Newport)
Newport is using it’s ‘prevention’ money to pilot the impact of this work.
What Solas Enhanced Support does:
• Stay as long as is needed
• Work with everyone in the house and the neighbours
• Work with all issues or ‘find a man who can!’
• Integrate services
Drawing on:
Freedom Programme ,Motivational Interviewing
Anger management, Solution Focussed Brief Therapy, Restorative Approaches
Parenting Programmes, mentoring
WHAT WE DO....
• Home management skills
• Budgeting, benefits and debt support and advice
• Setting up daily routines
• Supporting regular school attendance – and support
for children in the school setting
• Parenting Skills, family relationships
• Support to attend meetings
• Building confidence and self-esteem
• Positive changes to drug and alcohol use
• Help and advice on employment and training
• Bring in or help access other expertise
What impact do we have?
Cost effectiveness: Enhanced Support
delivers strong value for money generating
savings of at least £1.17 million over 3 year
(2010 – 2013)
(Cordis Bright, 2013)
Area of saving What these savings include Amount saved
Successful tenancies for 14
families at risk of
homelessness/ eviction
Staff and legal costs, security, rent
loss, repairs and re-letting. Housing
partners incur these costs.
£140,856 in total
(£10,061 per
family)
12 of 16 households
disengaged from antisocial
behaviour
Police time , Youth Offending Service
involvement and court appearances
£201,696
(£16,808 per
child)
The cost effectiveness of this service was evaluated independently by
Cordis Bright in 2013. Below we have illustrated the main conclusions in
relation to cost-savings:
OUTCOMES FOR AGENCIES
• Reduction in visits, call outs etc
• Reduction or elimination of rent arrears
• Regular feedback on progress with the ability to
‘nip problems in the bud’
• Improved liaison between agencies
• Improved family relationships
• Improved neighbour relationships
• Families leading more structured and productive
lives
Outcomes from Caerphilly:
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Familys facing eviction
warnings or final warnings given
Familys involved in ASB
Police interveniton
Neighbour complaints
Before Interveniton
After Intervention
NEET FAMILIES:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Problems attending education
Employment Social service Involvement
debt concerns
Before Intervention
After interveniton
Complexity of the issues:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Physical health issues
mental health issues Domestic violence substance misuse
Before interveniton
After Intervention
Domestic Abuse: ASB?
1 in 4 women experience domestic abuse
1 in 6 men
1 in 3 children open to social service have DA
3 in 4 children living in abusive households have witnessed abuse or been victims themselves
Police called 27 times to Daniel Pelka’s home
WHO: Globally DA kills more woman aged 19-44 than cancer, motor vehicles or war
HOUSING IS IDEALLY PLACED TO IDENTIFY,
RECOGNISE & PREVENT DA IN THEIR
PROPERTIES
FAMILIAL DOMESTIC ABUSE
• Perpetrator programs are seen as a key
intervention
• Educating perpetrators about the
consequences of their actions,
challenging them to accept
responsibility and assisting them to
seek help in changing their behaviour,
are seen as vitally important
strategies to avert further offending.
FAMILIAL DOMESTIC ABUSE
• All opportunities for engaging with
perpetrators must be pursued in the
hope that high rates of re-offending may
potentially be reduced.
• Recidivism can be influenced not only
by policing, sentencing practices etc,
but also by the quality of interactions
and integration between offenders
and the community.
Meet a family
Family with long standing involvement with social services, now in a temporary home
2 older teenage boys, 13 year old daughter
Substance misuse, neighbour complaints, rent
arrears, poor state of property,
13 year old NEET
Meet a family
Work:
Helped facilitate move from temporary home
Systemic work – working on the relationships in the home
Work with 13 year old & mother most effective
School involvement
Perpetrator work with three children.
Meet a family
Outcomes:
Settled accommodation (being adapted)
13 year old in full time education
No further police call outs or neighbour complaints
Key Lessons
Whole family
Tenacity and flexibility
Integration
Locally specialised
Timely interventions
Prevention can be intensive
Co-production
Housing can make a difference
Solas Enhances Support makes a
difference:
Our model of working with a multi skilled staff team
significantly reduces the need for ongoing involvement of
other services.
However the main cost effectiveness is demonstrated
by the significant change in the direction of the families’
futures, preventing their problems escalating and
reducing the burden on publicly funded services
at a time of increasing cost pressures.
(Cordis Bright)