I have never been a great supporter of the current incumbent of the Department for Communities and Local Government. Eric Pickles is clearly capable of a taking a bit of criticism and anyone who can say on the one hand that he wants to free up local government from the heavy hand of Whitehall, yet in the next breath insist that Councils empty the bins twice as often as usual, certainly deserves a lot of stick. He was on this Sundays Politics Programme and he was asked about his policy to encourage joined up activity around so called problem families. The idea is that instead of lots of agencies dealing with families that are costing the taxpayer an average of £75,000 a year, that one person will be asked to handle their case.

Eric could do better than pack his brief case and pop to the coast. Perhaps he could also bring his chum Theresa May from the Home Office and they might bring a picnic with them to see for themselves the good work that is taking place here. 

There are some great examples of how this sort of approach is already embedded in Brighton and Hove with issues of Domestic Violence and Family Protection. Along with Emma Daniel (@Huxley06) from Sussex Police Authority I have just returned from  visiting some of the people at the cutting edge of the sort of services Eric was referring to. First we met DI Miles Ockwell (@DI_Ockwell) who explained how the Domestic Violence Services had responded to a busy weekend with 23 new cases in the previous 24 hours including 3 arrests. As part of the process some of these cases will end up in so called MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference) meetings where members of Sussex Police, Brighton & Hove Council, other statutory agencies and the Voluntary and Community Sector put their heads together to consider how they could ensure that the family concerned receives the best care and that the problems that do exist are dealt with the best way.

After we had worn out our welcome with Miles, we tagged along with newly promoted Rachel Bacon (great name for a police officer!) to the brand new Whitehawk Library which houses the rather boringly named Whitehawk Hub. This is where some of the social workers are based who are involved in the hard work of intervening with the families that Eric has in mind. They work closely with Sussex Police and also voluntary sector agencies such as Sussex Central YMCA and RISE and are part of the Patchwork HQ project (http://tinyurl.com/ccrorph). It is clear that Eric’s idea of one person dealing with these families is a bit of an exaggeration (old habits die hard eh Eric!). The work that goes into each case is intensive. However once again what was made clear is that the people most at risk (often young children) are considered by all agencies together rather than apart. This means that matters get dealt with as swiftly as possible. However there are clearly still resource challenges and it is vital that Eric and Theresa do provide what is needed to ensure that this joined up working is not threatened. This is a classic case of a stitch in time saving nine. The cost to society of doing things the old long winded way will be much greater than the current costs of this model.

If I was Police and Crime Commissioner, this would be the sort of activity I would want to see sustained.

A photo of me outside the Whitehawk Hub