The Government’s Troubled Families Initiative has attracted its fair share of criticism, not least due to the money being spent on it and the limited number of people it would directly affect.

In Bradford alone, the Families First Initiative – the Council’s response to the Government programme – had been allocated £6.67 million.

But that criticism has to be put into context by considering the devastating effect the type of anti-social behaviour this project is trying to nip in the bud has on our community.

The Government has estimated the financial cost of dealing with the families targeted as £9 billion when police interventions, court and probation time, healthcare, extra education, and benefits are taken into account – in Bradford, it is targeted to save £9m. That is before even considering the social cost of emotional and physical damage this sort of behaviour causes.

So, in theory, the scheme is worth the outlay. But its effectiveness can only be judged by results, and fortunately, it would appear that early indications are this scheme is working. There has been a cut of 49 per cent in the number of children from these families being suspended by school and a 40 per cent reduction in ‘detected offences’ by young people within the target families.

These are real, tangible figures that show the benefit of a scheme that is dedicated to the idea of prevention rather than cure being a much better way of tackling this type of behaviour.

There is also evidence from the case studies of changing attitudes as a result of the help, with parents more willing to try to do something about their situation.

There is no doubt that this is an expensive scheme, but it seems to be one that will ultimately more than pay for itself economically if the initial results can be maintained and will also reduce the impact of anti-social behaviour on the whole community.