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Innovative help to tackle 'neighbours from hell'
Local communities who are plagued by significant anti-social behaviour from a small number of the country's most badly behaved families will today be given a helping hand as the Government delivers on its promise to establish a network of 53 Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) that will troubleshoot around 1,500 families a year across England.
Currently, problem families can disrupt the quality of life of whole communities and make the lives of residents around them miserable. They also put themselves at risk of losing their home, their children at risk of being taken into care if it's in their best interest or having enforcement action such as anti-social behaviour orders taken against them.
Family Intervention Projects work hard with families to stop this happening by challenging and helping them to change their behaviour.
These families have and create multiple problems and the way public services intervene currently is not always the most effective. For example the cost to the taxpayer can be between £250,000 and £350,000* per family per year for a range of interventions by public services including social, children's and housing services, policing, court services, criminal justice agencies and others. Family Intervention Projects provide a single key worker to 'grip' the family and challenge the root causes of their behaviour by giving intensive support but sanctions if rules are broken.
Louise Casey, the Government's coordinator for Respect said:
"I am delighted that today we can announce that there are 53 Family Intervention Projects across the country to work with the most difficult and anti-social families. These families can cause untold misery to those who have to live alongside them and destroy entire neighbourhoods with their frightening and disruptive behaviour.
"These projects, a flagship part of the Respect Programme, grip families and use enforcement action and intensive help, and are proven to turn families around. These are families that in the past may have been written off by agencies as 'lost causes' - but now will be offered the right help and incentives to become decent members of their community and give their children the opportunity to grow up with a chance in life."
Family Intervention Projects, a key commitment in the Respect Action Plan launched last year, offer impressive results. For more than 85 per cent of families, complaints about anti-social behaviour ceased or reduced and in 92 per cent of cases the risk to local communities was assessed as having either reduced or ceased completely by the time the families completed the programmes*.
Clare Tickell, Chief Executive of children's charity NCH, said:
"Families who are behaving anti-socially often have incredibly complex problems, problems that can have a ripple effect on an entire community. It makes sense that if you help the families, you'll help the community.
"Getting to the root of the problem can change behaviour forever - not only giving children in these families better health, education and well being but improving the lives of the whole community."
Different levels of intervention may be used at different times as circumstances and behaviour changes. At the most intensive level, families who require supervision and support on a 24-hour basis stay in a residential unit.
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) is providing funding to train up to 1,000 project workers to deliver parenting programmes and one-to-one support in Family Intervention Projects.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The 53 Family Intervention Projects are in:
Area Type of FIP
Barnsley Managed properties and outreach services
Birmingham Managed properties and outreach services
Blackburn Managed properties and outreach services
Blackpool Managed properties and outreach services
Bolton Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
Bournemouth Managed properties and outreach services
Bradford Managed properties and outreach services
Brighton Managed properties and outreach services
Bristol Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Burnley Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Camden Managed properties and outreach services
Coventry Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Darlington Managed properties and outreach services
Derby Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
Doncaster Managed properties and outreach services
Exeter Managed properties and outreach services
Gloucester Managed properties and outreach services
Hackney Managed properties and outreach services
Harlow Managed properties and outreach services
Hartlepool Managed properties and outreach services
Hastings Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Ipswich Managed properties and outreach services
Kingston Upon Managed properties and outreach services Hull
Kirklees Managed properties and outreach services
Knowsley Managed properties and outreach services
Lambeth Managed properties and outreach services
Leeds Managed properties and outreach services
Leicester Managed properties and outreach services
Liverpool Managed properties and outreach services
Manchester Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
Mansfield Managed properties and outreach services
Middlesbrough Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
Newcastle upon Managed properties and outreach services Tyne
Newham Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Norwich Managed properties and outreach services
Nottingham Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Oldham Managed properties and outreach services
Plymouth Managed properties and outreach services
Portsmouth Managed properties and outreach services
Rochdale Managed properties and outreach services
Salford Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Sandwell Managed properties and outreach services
Sheffield Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
South Tyneside Managed properties and outreach services
Southampton Managed properties and outreach services
Southend-on-Sea Managed properties, outreach services and scoping a
residential core unit
Southwark Managed properties and outreach services
Stoke Managed properties and outreach services
Sunderland Managed properties and outreach services
Tower Hamlets Managed properties and outreach services
Wakefield Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
Westminster Managed properties and outreach services
Wirral Residential core unit, managed properties and
outreach services
2. *Communities and Local Government (2006) 'Anti-social Behaviour Intensive Family Support Projects: An evaluation of six pioneering projects'. Department for Communities and Local Government: London
3. The Respect Action Plan, published in January 2006, detailed a commitment to establishing a national network of projects to work with the most challenging problem families by April 2007. An evaluation has been commissioned to assess the new national network of Family Intervention Projects and will report at the end of 2007.
4. The Government is providing approximately £15 million funding over two years to kick-start these projects (with £13 million of this coming from the Respect Task Force). Additionally, training in evidence based parenting programmes for practitioners in the FIP areas worth up to £3 million is being funded by the DfES.
5. Average project costs range from around £8,000 per family for those receiving outreach help in their homes or living in managed properties to around £15,000 for services providing more intensive services (in a residential core unit). Government is contributing about £5,000 per family of this through funding under the Respect programme. (This excludes resources available to local authorities through mainstream funding such as Supporting People, neighbourhood renewal and other local authority revenue streams.)
6. There are three distinct levels of interventions which are used according to the family's needs and the impact of their behaviour on the community. Different levels of intervention may be used at different times as circumstances and behaviour changes.
7. Most projects provide an outreach service for families who are responsible for anti-social behaviour in their home, and who are at risk of being evicted. Services can also be provided in units managed by the family intervention project but dispersed in the community.
8. At the most intensive level, families who require supervision and support on a 24 hour basis stay in a core residential unit. Upon satisfactory completion of a programme, the family can move into a dispersed unit. While projects vary in the level of service they can provide, they share key features which are what distinguishes these projects.
9. Sheffield Hallam University conducted an evaluation of six family support projects in the North West of England. Its study found:
* an 85 per cent reduction in complaints about anti-social
behaviour;
* a 36 per cent improvement in school attendance;
and
* an 80 per cent reduction in the risk of homelessness.
10. For more information on the Respect programme visit http://www.respect.gov.uk
