Troubled families policy deserves cross-party support

The report published this week by Louise Casey, the Government’s ‘Troubled Families’ Tsar, has attracted a fair amount of criticism, but what it does illustrate is the chaotic lives these families lead – and the implausibility of thinking that their problems can be solved by the kind of flagship social policies traditionally favoured by either Conservatives or Labour. As Isabel put it, Conservative ‘reform of the welfare system will pass many of the families by. In these stories there is no calculated decision to opt out of the labour market because of generous benefits, more an endless failure to cope with life and the way it has worked out’. Likewise, when the Labour government opened a Sure Start centre down the road, these were the families least likely to take advantage of it.

There is, in fact, clear evidence about what kind of state intervention actually works in ‘turning these families around’.