Summary
Family Intervention Projects use an assertive and persistent style of working to get families to address their anti-social behaviour. Our key findings were:
Early outcomes show substantial improvements in families’ behaviour when they left the project
The proportion of families:
> involved in anti-social behaviour and criminal activities had declined from 61% to 7%
> subject to enforcement action (eg, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) almost halved from 45% to 23%
> at risk of eviction was cut by two thirds from 60% to 18%
> with educational problems (eg, truancy, exclusion, bad behaviour at school) had reduced from 37% to 21%
Eight features of the project model appear critical to its success
The 8 critical features are:
> the recruitment and retention of high quality staff,
> small caseloads,
> having a dedicated key worker who manages a family and works intensively with them,
> a whole-family approach,
> staying involved with a family for as long as necessary,
> scope to use resources flexibly,
> using sanctions with support, and
> effective multi-agency relationships.
Projects appeared to be working with their intended beneficiaries
The projects seem to be working with the right targets:
> 78 per cent of families referred to a project met the referral criteria and agreed to work with a project.
> Participating families had high levels of anti-social behaviour and criminal activity and were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless because of their problem behaviour. These families were also well known in the community for causing anti-social behaviour.