Investment must be made from the start

摘要

There is a beautiful irony in the report from the National Audit Office (NAO) on troubled families this week. The watchdog's appraisal of the two-pronged programmes of the DCLG and the DWP is that they are having an impact - which is good news, given the £9bn a year spent on services for the 120,000 families. But it goes on to say that local government needs to up its game to meet the 'ambitious targets' - and will need to invest more to make it work. The question is, invest what? A couple of buttons and a fifty pence piece from down the back of the sofa, perhaps. The sector is bereft of funding and today's Autumn Statement is unlikely to change that.