Introduction

A constant feature of the Troubled Families Programme, throughout its various phases and its ‘evolution’, has been the promotion of the family intervention model as the best way of working with ‘troubled families’. This model has remained central to the TFP even when the entry criteria for ‘troubled families’ has changed and the outcomes expected of the programme have been tweaked. This chapter explicates the history of the family intervention model, initially by going beyond the reputed origins of the approach in Dundee. International and historical approaches that share significant features with the family intervention model are examined before the origins and development of the ‘Dundee model’ are considered in detail. The chapter follows the development of the family intervention approach as it was piloted in six projects across England in the early 2000s and subsequently rolled out as a ‘national network’ of Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) in 2006. The continued development of the approach under the TFP is then examined, with a focus on some unacknowledged changes from the Dundee model, as well as some troubling continuities. A discussion drawing attention to the neglect of structural issues in family intervention work concludes the chapter. The chapter also highlights how the approach, developed ostensibly to work with a very small number of troublesome families at risk of eviction, has, in practice, worked with a wide range of families, with issues such as poverty, disability and vulnerability often being far more prevalent than deviancy and delinquency. Some differences between policy rhetoric and professional practice are also highlighted in this chapter, but this issue is discussed in the following chapter in more detail.