NEARLY 1,400 households across the Bradford district have been supported by the government’s ‘Troubled Families’ programme, new figures have revealed.

The £448 million scheme has been accessed by more than 85,000 families across England, including 1,377 via interventions from Bradford Council.

The programme helps get children who were previously truanting or excluded back into school, supports adults on out-of-work benefits, and works with families whose problems place a heavy burden on taxpayers’ money.

Louise Casey, who heads up the scheme, said: “To have turned around the lives of over 85,000 troubled families – who have an average of nine serious problems each – in two and a half years is a credit to the councils, the frontline staff and most of all to the families themselves.

“This programme works because it is joined up and it seeks to simplify things rather than make them more complicated.

“It focuses on whatever it takes to do what really matters, getting kids into school, the toughest families out of trouble with the police, and adults into a position where they can find a job.”