THE second phase of a scheme to transform the lives of thousands of problem families in Bradford will be harder to achieve than the first due to a large cut in funding, warns a new council report.

Under Families First Scheme, the Government provides funding to councils to intervene with families linked with anti-social or criminal behaviour, with children who are persistently absent from school or adults who are long term unemployed.

So far the programme has successfully helped 1,632 families, but a report being presented to Bradford Council's Children's Services Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday reveals some have slipped through the cracks.

During phase one, the council intervened in the lives of 1,760 families, with 93 per cent of these interventions deemed successful.

Phase two has now started and Bradford Council will be involved with 5,990 families between now and 2015.

However the amount available to help each family has fallen from £4,000 to £1,800. The council receives £1,000 when it allocates a family and £3,800 if it achieves results.

Paul O’Hara, Families First Manager, said: "Phase two will be harder to achieve the Payment by Results outcomes due to a higher number of families, additional outcomes, a 50 per cent reduction in funding and additional monitoring requirements."

The programme involves using a dedicated worker or team to get to the underlying problems of dysfunctional families, rather than individual services, such as police or children's services, responding to the problems of each family member.

As well as helping the families improve their situation, the scheme was intended to reduce the amount spent on these families by different agencies, from councils and social services to police and the NHS.

One adult coming off benefits can save almost £9,000 a year, and a single domestic violence incident can cost the police and criminal justice system around £18,000.

Funding is awarded to the council if its work leads to a 60 per cent reduction in anti-social behaviour from the family, offending rates by children reducing by a third or unemployed adults getting jobs or onto work programmes.

In phase one targets were not met for 318 families and 55 of those were transferred onto phase two.

Of the remaining 263, 72 per cent were white and 39 per cent were Asian. Most of these families were considered low or medium risk, but the scheme did not get results for 49 high risk families and 18 very high risk families.

Six of these high risk families had left Bradford, 21 families were subject to child protection orders or given a children in need classification. Eight young people in these families committed crimes, leading to them being dealt with by the youth offending team, and 18 families refused any help from the programme.

Since phase two started in March, the council has dealt with 493 families, and turned 21 around already, including helping 13 adults move out of poverty off benefits into work.

The committee meets in City Hall at 4.30pm on Wednesday.