£11m investment in ‘troubled families’

Under its existing ‘Think Family’ initiative, the county council has so far identified more than 800 of these families in West Sussex who meet the ‘Troubled Family’ criteria as set out by the Government.

Under the criteria vulnerable families are experiencing ‘a combination of crime and antisocial behaviour, worklessness and non school attendance’ and they are eligible for intervention and help by the council.

The idea behind the scheme is to target social problems at their root, in a family or in a community, so that further problems are prevented.

Each family will be assigned a key worker whose role will be to ‘turn around’ the family by getting children back into school, helping parents find work and ensuring that family members participation in crime and antisocial behaviour is reduced.