Town hall bosses reject report’s claim ‘troubled families’ scheme was a flop

COUNCIL bosses claim a programme to help Macclesfield families with social problems is a success - despite an unpublished Government report finding the £1.3bn scheme was a flop.

The ‘troubled families’ scheme was launched in 2012 and aimed to turn around the lives of the most troubled homes in the country by tackling unemployment, truancy or criminality.

Cheshire East Council was given £2.9m to help 793 families, including around 150 in Macclesfield.

Last year the government claimed the scheme was a success with 117,000 families - including 585 in Cheshire East - turned around.

But a separate governmentcommissioned audit of the effectiveness of the programme has concluded differently.

The leaked Ecorys report, which analysed the results from 56 local authorities, concluded there was “no discernible impact” on the numbers of adults claiming out-of-work benefits or getting jobs after starting on the programme.

The report also claimed the success criteria was vague and that families were deemed ‘turned around’ even though the children were still persistently truant or committing crime.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said that the report had not yet been finalised. But Cheshire East Council claims locally it had been a ‘great success’.

A spokesman said: “Cheshire East Council received £2,940,000 from the department of communities and local government (DCLG) to deliver phase one of the troubled families programme from April 2012 up until March 2015.

“The DCLG set Cheshire East a target of 585 families that were to be ‘turned around’ in that three year period. To achieve that target, the Council identified and worked with 793 families.

“We achieved our target of 585 families that were successfully ‘turned around’ as defined by the DCLG criteria.

“Of those families, 21.4 per cent came from Macclesfield and its surrounding areas.

“The final evaluation report has yet to be published but the delivery of this phase of the programme has been a great success.

“As a result, school attendances have improved, there is a reduction in crime and anti social behaviour and many people on benefits have returned to work.”