Heretic Stephen Crossley talked about the Troubled Families Programme, launched in the aftermath of the 2011 riots, which works with some of England’s most troublesome and anti-social families. Stephen reviewed the claims made that the first phase of the programme had ‘turned around’ the lives of 99% of the 120,000 ‘troubled families’ identified at the outset of the programme and within the timescale. Now in its second phase the programme is working with 400,000 more ‘troubled families’, using a ‘persistent, assertive and challenging’ model of ‘family intervention’.

Stephen examined different aspects of the ‘troubled families’ story including: its intellectual antecedents; the misuse of research evidence throughout the programme; the extent to which the families constitute ‘neighbours from hell’; and the ability of ‘family intervention’ style practices to ‘turn around’ the lives of impoverished and disadvantaged families.

Listen to Heresy #12: Troubled families or troubling policy.