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Council helps turn around troubled families

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An impressive track record of working with troubled families has led to St Helens Council being selected to take part in the next phase of a Government programme.

The council and its key partners signed up to the Troubled Families project in March 2012 – when it was set a target of identifying and ‘turning around’ 520 local families over the following three years by working with them in a practical, coordinated way.

In St Helens 96 per cent of those families identified have now met the criteria of a successful intervention – with children going back to school, reduced youth crime and/or anti-social behaviour and adults gaining employment.

The council’s success means that it is now set to play a part in the expanded national programme – which will be reaching out to some of the borough’s most challenging and complex families over the next five years.

Re-branded locally as the Priority Families programme, the initiative will adopt a new approach – using a family intervention model that provides practical support to families to help them make positive changes.

St Helens Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Young People, Councillor Sue Murphy explained: “Families need to know that something new and additional is on offer to help them make improvements. We’ll be doing this by ensuring that every Priority Family has a ‘lead professional’ who can access enhanced support for families.

“The lead professionals will be able to tap into targeted resources and interventions on behalf of their Priority Family – such as family intervention workers, Home-Start volunteers, and employment advisors.”

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