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Intensive Family Intervention and the Problem Figuration of ‘Troubled Families’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2015

Emily Ball ,
Elaine Batty  and
John Flint
Emily Ball
Affiliation:
Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield E-mail: gga08eb@sheffield.ac.uk
Elaine Batty
Affiliation:
Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University E-mail: e.batty@shu.ac.uk
John Flint
Affiliation:
Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield E-mail: john.flint@sheffield.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article examines how intensive family interventions in England since 1997, including the Coalition government's Troubled Families programme, are situated in a contemporary problem figuration of ‘anti-social’ or ‘troubled’ families that frames and justifies the utilisation of different models of intensive family intervention. The article explores how techniques of classification and estimation, combined with the controversial use of ‘research’ evidence in policy making, are situated within a ‘rational fiction’ that constructs ‘anti-social’ families in particular ways. The article illustrates how this problem figuration has evolved during the New Labour and Coalition administrations in England, identifying their similarities and differences. It then presents findings from a study of intensive family intervention strategies and mechanisms in a large English city to illustrate how this national level discourse and policy framework relates to developing localised practice, and the tensions and ambiguities that arise.

Keywords

Anti-social behaviourintensive family interventionlocal practiceproblem figurationtroubled families
Type
Themed Section on Intensive Family Support Services: Politics, Policy and Practice Across Contexts
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 263 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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