The lives of more than 500 troubled families in Bradford have been “turned around” by a scheme to help dysfunctional households, the Government claimed today.

New figures have been released by the Department for Communities and Local Government 18 months into the three-year Troubled Families Programme.

As of the end of September, the programme had worked with 1,005 families in the Bradford district. From those, the Government said 543 had been “turned around” thanks to the scheme by the end of October.

In Bradford, the aim is to help 1,760 families over the three years of the scheme, which could save nearly £12 million in costs for things such as social services, police work, prison costs, benefits payments and health care.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles, a former Bradford Council leader, said: “Councils are making great strides in a very short space of time, dealing with families that have often had problems and created serious issues in their communities for generations.

“These results show that these problems can be dealt with through a no- nonsense and common sense approach, bringing down costs to the taxpayer at the same time.”

Head of the Troubled Families programme, Louise Casey, said: “This programme is getting to grips with families who for too long have been allowed to be caught up in a cycle of despair.

“These results show that a tough, intensive but supportive approach has a big impact, giving hope and opportunity to the families and respite to the communities around them.”

The Government said that, nationally, more than 62,000 families are being worked with and more than 22,000 have been turned around, with children back in school, levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour reduced and over 1,400 adults from some of England’s hardest-to-help households now in continuous work.

Across Yorkshire and the Humber, more than 7,300 families are being worked with against a final target of 14,010, while over 3,300 have been turned around.

In addition, adults from more than 120 households in the region are now in continuous work as a result of the scheme.

Wakefield has already turned two-thirds of its 930 troubled families around, while seven councils – Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Rotherham, East Riding, North East Lincolnshire and Calderdale – are currently working with more than half of their troubled families.

Local authorities are paid up to £4,000 on a payment-by-results basis for turning around troubled families.