Over the course of the next five years extra funding from the government will mean that more than 100,000 children from the most difficult families will be helped by intervention projects.

Parents of children with an asbo will automatically be required to attend classes on literacy and parenting and will also have an option to move into supported accommodation.

Intervention projects cost an average of £8,000-£20,000 a year per family. The government says that this new scheme could ultimately save around £3 billion over the course of 5 years by cutting the cost of police and court and council action involved in dealing with difficult families.

Figures from a pilot scheme show that 82% of families referred to the projects were jobless, 76% had educational or learning problems, 66% had physical and mental health problems and 65% had poor parenting.

The scheme drastically improved the behaviour of the 700 families involved. Bringing the 46% of families involved in antisocial behaviour down to just 5%, a huge improvement.

Since the project was introduced three years ago, it has opened 170 centres across the U.K and has helped an estimated 2,600 families.

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