[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14527540

Mr Cameron called for 'urgent action' on troubled families

Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will put "rocket boosters" under work to turn round 120,000 troubled families in the wake of recent rioting.

He said the government should be less sensitive to claims that intervening was "interfering or nannying".

Mr Cameron said bureaucracy was slowing support for families facing multiple problems.

Labour leader David Miliband said parenting was a big issue, but warned against kneejerk reactions.

Mr Cameron has previously championed a drive to "turn around troubled families".

He has sought to boost the use of the family intervention project model.

This seeks to help families who face a combination of problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, illness, mental illness, unemployment, poverty and anti-social behaviour and truancy.

'Problem'

Support can involve allocating a single social worker to gain an overview of the problems facing the family, including having to deal with up to 20 different government agencies and support services.

"We've got to get out there and make a positive difference to the way families work, the way people bring up their children," said Mr Cameron, speaking at a youth centre in Oxfordshire.

"We need more urgent action... on the families that some people call 'problem', others call 'troubled'," he said.

In December, he appointed entrepreneur Emma Harrison as a "family champion", to lead a drive to get workless families back into employment, also using a similar model.

At the time, she said there were thought to be 125,000 that have never worked, and these are the "troubled families" that a lot of social problems "stem from".

However, Mr Cameron said bureaucracy had "held back" this work, and promised to "clear away the red tape".

Most support for families with multiple problems is now run by local authorities, funded by the Early Intervention Grant, which was essentially cut by 11% in 2012.

So where's the money going to come from for this "Big Idea" ......

The whole statement seems reminiscent of Cameron's "vision" of the now-discredited and abandoned "Big Society" .....