Message - September 2011

The government estimates there are 1,370 such families in Lincolnshire, and wants the funding to bring about clear results:

• children back in school
• reduce criminal and anti-social behaviour
• parents helped back into work
• reduce costs to the taxpayer and local authorities.

Lincolnshire County Council, together with partners, is already working with troubled families, through the Families Working Together project, one of 16 pilot areas chosen by the Government.  So we are leading the way in this area and look forward to building on the successes that have already been achieved.

The project has been running since April and is making significant steps in improving the lives of county families, with senior Government officials praising the progress that has been made.

Key workers have worked closely with 60 families who agreed to become involved and sign up to an action plan, to help them tackle major problems and improve their family lives.

All the families who are invited to take part are already involved with at least four different agencies. There could be issues such as anti-social behaviour, school absence, drug misuse and unemployment.

These issues can blight the families’ lives, as well as having a negative effect on surrounding communities.

The family’s key worker helps them find solutions to their problems, and co-ordinates their appointments, so that families don’t have to deal with many different individuals, which can be very confusing.  

Already there are positive examples of how families’ lives have improved thanks to the project. A father with a teenage son had a chaotic lifestyle and very poor housing; now support from Families Working Together is helping them turn their lives around.

In another case, a mother was struggling on her own to bring up her six children, and there were particular concerns about the impact of aggressive behaviour of older children on their young siblings. Again, help from the council project has had a huge impact.

The project is run through a community budget which brings together ‘pots’ of funding from eight funding partners, with 30 partners engaged with the project. Through delivering support to families in a more co-ordinated way, it is expected that there will be savings of £5.7m over 12 months.

We look forward to working with many more families in the future, and resolving issues that will benefit the families and the wider community.