How a no-nonsense approach turned a ‘troubled family’ around

There would be many who would be horrified to find themselves an advert for the government’s Troubled Families programme. The language around it has been much criticised with its echoes of “neighbours from hell” and visions of the television programme, Shameless, hanging heavily alongside it.

But 40 year-old Lou is proud. Bursting at the seams proud. When you listen to her story, it’s little wonder.

Lou spent much of her childhood in care. Her mother was a victim of domestic violence and at 15 she too, took up with a violent partner enduring abuse for 26 years.

By the time she ended up on the programme, her three children were on a child protection register and about to be removed. They weren’t attending school and the police were regularly called to the house. A house which – according to Lou’s outreach worker, Vinette Gopaul, was absolutely filthy.

The help offered by the programme is all encompassing. Vinette started with helping to show Lou how to clean the house properly. She’d come first thing in the morning to make sure the children were washed, fed and got off to school. She’d often be back in the evening to teach Lou how to cook a family meal. All the very basics to many but if you’ve never seen it done – why would you know how to do it?

And Lou has been rewarded by things she’d never seen before either. She is surprised and delighted by her children actually listening to her and openly showing her affection. Perhaps the biggest result for her of more than a year on the programme: “The life my children have got now is the life I would have loved.”

So look at Lou and you can see success. Look at her outreach worker, Vinette, from Wandsworth Family Recovery Project, and you can see where much of that success has come from. Straight talking, no nonsense but not judgemental either. Working way beyond nine to five. There for the family on every front.

The Government’s claiming the Troubled Families programme is a working well across the board – so far. Twenty two thousand families “turned around” , half way through the three year term. That means either truanting children back in school, or youth crime down, a parent back in work.

There have some questions about how this is all evaluated. Success is essentially self assessed by the councils in charge of running the programme on the ground – however , Louise Casey, who heads up the programme for government, insists they have a robust monitoring system. Other quibbles have been around the rather arbitrary figure of 120,000 identified for help.

But in truth there’s a strong political consensus around this policy. One Labour source admitted to me , albeit begrudgingly : “This is one thing Eric Pickles’ department is getting right.”

If they continue to get it right this will be a big success for the government but an even bigger triumph for the families – their achievements measured in ways beyond the political.