Overview

UK Governments know that 'folk devils' are always useful. A folk devil allows the voter to feel superior and provides a focus for disatisfaction with the status quo. The 'decent, hard working, aspiring family' is only too ready to accept a scapegoat for society's ills. New Labour invented the demonic 'lone mother' and her 'menace' children ...the dysfunctional families responsible for the moral breakdown of Britain, who were costly to maintain in the welfare state. In fact most of the families targeted for abusive state intervention were poor, living in social housing, incapable of work, chronically ill or disabled and with learning disabled children having school problems. Very few were criminal, anti-social or calculating scroungers. New Labour introduced the 'ASBO Sin Bins' to reprogramme these chaotic families from 1997 onwards ...and failed. Parenting lessons and sanctions cannot cure illness and disability. The Coalition followed the Labour medicine although the objective evaluation evidence showed these intervention schemes had failed. But now there was an even greater incentive for government to demonise the 'Troubled Families' ...their illnesses and disabled children cost the state too much during austerity and their benefits had to be reduced. To justify this it was only necessary to brand them as criminal benefit cheats and scroungers...and some of the illinformed public and right wing press loved it. The truth became a casualty of political populism. 'Troubled Families' looks at the history of the family intervention projects from 1997 to 2015 presenting a detailed analysis of each phase of these schemes and showing how they failed again and again to 'turn around' the target families. We also look at the true nature of the families in terms of poverty, sickness and deprivation and the clinical evidence that mental health interventions, early remedial education and better nutrition can improve their situation ...and in the medium term save the state money. The ongoing demonisation and sanctions based 'processing' of the troubled families is not only morally indefencable but also a massive and scandalous waste of taxpayer money.

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9781514170588

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