Pickles announces employment support for troubled families

Chaotic households supported by the Government’s troubled families programme are set to get help from dedicated Jobcentre Plus advisers, ministers have announced.

Under the terms of a joint-agreement signed by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), troubled families employment advisers based at Jobcentre's would offer practical support - including CV writing, interview skills, signposting job vacancies and training opportunities.

As part of its commitment, the DWP has agreed to provide until May 2015 up to six fully-funded Jobcentre Plus secondees to the top 94 upper-tier authorities covering more than 80% of the 120,000 troubled families targeted for support through the initiative.

Support would be offered on a sliding scale based on the number of troubled families living within an area. Authorities responsible for more than 3,000 troubled families would get the maximum allocation of six secondees, and those with between 2,000 – 3,000 would be allocated up to four advisers, those with more than 1,500 families three. However, authorities with less than 545 troubled families would not have a dedicated adviser, but continue to receive help from their local Jobcentre Plus partnership manager.

The DCLG also published today a progress update on the first nine months of the troubled families programme indicating more than 23,000 families were receiving support as of December 2012 and 1,675 successfully helped as of January 2013 – meaning the authorities could claim payment-by-results cash in full.

Local government secretary, Eric Pickles, said the draft figures showed the programme is ‘on track’ and ‘ahead of schedule’ in ‘getting to grips with some of the hardest to help families in the country’.

‘But by including a real push towards employment for troubled families we will also help give a sense of purpose and aspiration to people who for too long have been allowed to fail by the state,’ Mr Pickles said.

Iain Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary said: ‘Jobcentre Plus advisers will now be working with families to offer more targeted support to those who have been failed by the system and where no-one is working or there is a history of worklessness across generations.’

In response, chairman of the Local Government Association, Sir Merrick Cockell, said: ‘The rapid progress being made by local authorities vindicates government’s decision to put councils at the centre of the programme and demonstrates the huge difference councils can make in this area when given the necessary powers and adequate resources.’