Durham County Council is to receive almost £650,000 as it leads the way in how local authorities receive funding to support families.
The national Troubled Families Programme aims to provide stability and practical support for people to overcome complicated issues including work-lessness, uncontrolled debt and truancy.
Now, as the scheme helps more than ever before, 11 local authorities across the country have been selected to receive money allowing them to invest in ambitious plans to ensure positive outcomes for families.
Cllr Olwyn Gunn, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, said: “We are the only authority in the North East to have been given the new Earned Autonomy status, which recognises the strong case we made, with our partners, for that upfront investment.
“We hope this funding will help us achieve our ambitious aims, spurring faster transformation of the services we offer and ensuing high quality support for families in need.”
The new Earned Autonomy scheme builds on the existing Payments by Results system, in which local authorities are paid for each family who either achieves “significant and sustained progress” or moves into continuous employment.
Durham will use the money it receives in three areas of the county where there is a high demand for family support; to invest in the development of a new IT system through which agencies can share information and better work together; and to train staff, partners and voluntary sector workers to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to address complex needs.
That will include parenting programmes to help support families affected by domestic abuse, and the further development of a “relational, child centred approach” to family working to ensure children’s needs are accounted for.
Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed the progress made by the Troubled Families Programme over the past year, which was revealed in the government’s second Troubled Families annual report.
He said: “Adults who were once far from the job market are now moving into work. Children are getting the right support they need and local leaders are encouraging and challenging all services working with children and their families to act early and offer whole family support, to stop their problems becoming worse.”
