Family futures is about family life in areas of concentrated poverty and social problems, areas where it is difficult to bring up children and where surrounding conditions make family life more fraught and more limited. Neighbourhoods for families aren't just the houses they live in and the routes they take to school, the shops they buy from and the facilities they use. They are communities of people and clusters of connecting activities. These places form a web around people's lives, both anchoring them, and providing the basic services they need – or in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, depriving local families of what they need for their children to progress. Home and neighbourhood carry special meaning for families, because where they live, how they fit in with their neighbours and how their children grow up all intertwine, to build a sense of community. Schools, health centres, local police, shops, parks, play areas, the streets themselves and bus routes all build up local connections, yet too often they fall short of families’ needs and ambitions.

Families are at the forefront of change and progress as children are our common future, and what we do to them today will shape all our tomorrows. Poorer communities combine many strands of disadvantage because one problem compounds another, making these areas unpopular with families and other households with choice. Poor neighbourhoods become home to low-income families because they are dominated by subsidised homes for rent and therefore cheaper to live in, more attractive to people on low incomes and less desirable to people in better-paid work. Poorer families with children need affordable housing above all, so they are concentrated in areas of social housing.

Families also need social support, local contacts, local services, familiar faces and community activity, in order to build their family lives within the local area. This makes them value highly a sense of community and a sense of belonging. Many studies support the popular notion that community matters, that where you live is a major determinant of your family's progress, that community capacity and solidarity can combat crime and other social ills, that over-rapid change and loss of family connections can undermine community identity .