Statement
My Honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Homelessness (Felicity Buchan MP) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:
As required by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, section (3) 6, today I have published the 2022/23 annual report of the Supporting Families programme. The report sets out how the programme has been helping our most disadvantaged families who face multiple and complex problems. We are laying this report today and will deposit a copy in the House of Commons library.
Supporting Families (previously the Troubled Families Programme) helps join up local services to help families combat problems such as domestic abuse, unemployment, truancy and poor mental and physical health, with funding allocated based on deprivation and population figures. It has been at the heart of the Government’s work to strengthen families and improve their futures for 10 years. This phase of the programme has seen an increase of £200 million additional investment in order to expand the programme. This is around a 40% real-terms uplift in funding by 2024-25, taking total planned investment between 2022-23 to 2024-25 to £695 million.
This is the Supporting Families Programme’s 10th anniversary. The programme has directly helped vulnerable families across England. Importantly, the programme has shown what is possible when we step in early to help families and prevent problems from escalating. The programme’s evaluation showed it reduced the proportion of children on the programme going into care by a third, the proportion of adults going to prison by a quarter and juvenile convictions by 15%.
Ten years of Supporting Families: annual report of the Supporting Families programme 2022-2023, is the 7th annual report for the Supporting Families Programme. This document provides an update on the programme’s performance figures and policy developments for the programme.
Between April 2022 and January 2023, we have achieved positive outcomes with 50,860 families. The programme is making progress on its aim of helping 300,000 families between 2022-23 and 2024-25. This year’s outcomes takes the total number of families helped since 2015 to almost 535,000. The programme continues to work across a range of outcomes and supports many different priorities across government. In October 2022, local authorities implemented the updated outcomes framework, which has brought in new outcomes including early years development and secure housing.
As well as setting out the previous number of families that have been supported at both national and local level over the last year, the report also sets out how the programme has continued to drive improvement of local services for families. For example, the programme has updated the Early Help System Guide self-assessment tool and continues to identify and disseminate good practice.
I look forward to working alongside local authorities, their partners and other stakeholders as the programme continues to build on the success of the previous ten years and to seeing first-hand the continued impact it has on the lives of our most vulnerable families.