Troubled, Troubling or in Trouble: The Stories of ‘Troubled Families’

The Troubled Families (TF) programme is a national initiative launched in 2011 that aims to identify and work with families defined as ‘troubled’. An in-depth case study was undertaken using biographical data from eight ‘troubled families’ in one London borough. Intensive accounts of their lives were collected and analysed to illustrate the historical events, life experiences, and formal and informal support that may have led to their identification as a ‘troubled family’. Current policy discourse characterises such families as dysfunctional with inter-generational problems. The stories recounted here describe families with specific needs who might be regarded as ‘in trouble’ but they are not ‘troublesome’.