MPs say Troubled Families claim is ‘misleading’

The Public Accounts Committee has said the government's claim that its Troubled Families project had ‘turned around’ the lives of 99 per cent of England's most troubled families is a misleading statement.

The group of MPs also outlined that ministers had not taken into account costs when saying the Troubled Families programme had saved taxpayers £1.2 billion.

The £448 million scheme was launched by former Prime Minister David Cameron launched in 2012, following the 2011 riots, in a bid to improve the lives of 120,000 families in England by 2015.

As part of the scheme, local authorities claimed reward payments for 116,654 families, out of the maximum 117,910 for which they could have claimed, during this period.

However, the PAC report warned: "The implication of 'turned around' was misleading, as the term was only indicative of achieving short-term outcomes under the programme rather than representing long-term, sustainable change in families' lives.

"While there was some success, by claiming that an outcome achieved meant that a family had been 'turned around', the department's use of the term overstated the impact of the Troubled Families programme."

A Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) spokesman responded: "As the PAC report recognises, the Troubled Families programme enabled local authorities to expand and transform the way local services work with families.

"But of course, there will always be lessons to learn and we have already made significant improvements to the second stage of the programme.

"We will look carefully at the evidence to find out how we can improve the programme further to help some of the most vulnerable people in our society."