BRADFORD Council is falling behind on its targets for helping troubled families, according to newly released figures.

Families First is a government funded scheme for local councils to intervene in the lives of some of the country’s most troubled families.

Bradford Council was set a target of identifying 5,990 families associated with crime, anti social behaviour, domestic abuse, persistent truancy and long term unemployment, and intervene to improve their lives.

The target for the council to do this is by 2020, but a new report to be discussed by councillors later this week reveals that so far the council is not meeting this target.

The council signed up for Phase 2 of the scheme last March, and the council would get £1,800 funding for every family they could prove had their lives turned around by the intervention of the authority.

The council is paid £1,000 when the family is identified, and £800 after the successful intervention.

The new report says that while council’s goal was to identify and work with 1,918 families by March, just 1114 had been reached by the end of June.

An average of 120 new families will have to be identified per month by next March if the council hopes to meet its targets.

Phase 1 of the scheme saw the council granted £4,000 for every family it helped turn around, with 1,632 families involved in “successful interventions.”

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.

Jenny Cryer, Assistant Director of Performance, Commissioning and Partnerships for Children's Services, said: “The Families First programme is an important partnership initiative that provides support for families on issues ranging from domestic violence to crime and anti-social behaviour.

"Since September 2014, we have been able to work with 1,114 families across the district to help improve their lives.

"This is despite government cutting funding for the programme by 50% and asking for an increase in the workload we need to provide for each family. "We have been working to provide better training for staff across agencies so that we can reach more families and meet the programme’s target.”

Councillor Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) raised concerns about whether the council could meet the targets when the scheme was discussed by councillors last year. After reading the latest update he said: “With a reduced funding total of £1,800 per family, when they are engaged with the project the actual work will clearly have to be ‘smarter’, but the reduction in funding shouldn’t affect the initial engagement process, which seems to be the problem.

“Each family committing to the programme attracts £1,000 of the funding ‘upfront’. The committee will need to investigate whether there are some systemic bottlenecks, or whether these ‘Phase 2’ families are simply more reluctant to engage.”

Councillor Jeannette Sunderland, (Lib Dem Idle and Thackley) is working on a summer project to engage with young people, some of which are linked with the “troubled families” programme.

She said: “We need to be very careful we don’t talk ourselves into not doing our job because we say there is not enough money.

“The council spends millions of pounds on offices and scaffolding on City Hall, To me these things should be secondary to breaking the cycle of deprivation in our district.”

The report will be discussed by the council’s Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee in City Hall on Thursday at 5.30pm.