More than 500 of the most vulnerable families in Norfolk are to get extra support after the county was awarded at least �4m in government cash to help turn lives around.

The county emerged yesterday as one of the biggest financial winners in the national Troubled Families Programme.

It means hundreds more families most in need across the county will get help to get children back into school, cut youth crime and anti-social behaviour and put adults on a path back to work.

Norfolk County Council, which co-ordinates family support services for the county, currently invests more than �700,000 from its own Early Intervention Grant in direct support to the county's most troubled families, via Family Intervention Projects.

Those projects have supported 172 families, helping children to return to education, parents to access training and employment and some neighbourhoods to experience reduced anti-social behaviour.

But the �4m up-front funding, coupled with the promise of further investment if projects are deemed a success, means around 567 Norfolk families will benefit from support each year for the next three years.

The projects help to identify and tackle the causes of family crisis, so children and young people are able to move back into education and fulfil their potential, preventing future generations suffering from the same difficulties.

Derrick Murphy, leader of Norfolk County Council, said: 'We really welcome this additional investment for Norfolk, which will help us to support the 1,700 families most in need in the county.

'This will enhance the work we already have underway and help to reinforce our commitment to early intervention and prevention.

'By working together we want to help families identify and solve their problems, rather than simply reacting to them – reacting alone is far more costly both to the children involved and the public purse.

'The families included in this programme are more likely to have children who are permanently excluded from school, out of education, employment or training and at risk of committing crime and anti-social behaviour.

'We want to break this cycle and can only do this by working across the public and voluntary sector to look at the causes and working with the families to make the changes needed.'

Norfolk's Family Intervention Projects are already estimated to have saved more than �70,000 per family and the government and the county council says extra investment will save taxpayers even more.

Dawn Jackson, co-founder of the Norwich-based Future Projects who has worked with the Family Intervention Projects, said the government funding would ensure the county's most vulnerable families were being supported by a team of professionals.

'They're absolutely fantastic and do everything from family support programmes to parents programmes to interventions. Under my Future hat, I worked with them a lot and they were very much working with communities.'

One person who has seen the benefit of the schemes is Keith, from Great Yarmouth, who did not want to be fully identified.

He has been helped by the Ormiston Children and Families Trust, which provides several Family Intervention Projects.

And the 42-year-old credits them with turning his life, and that of his son, around.

He said: 'I got involved about two years ago. I had lost my father, a long-term relationship had come to an end and I was off sick from work. My son was going off the rails and I felt like a punch-drunk boxer just wanting to throw in the towel.

'I had different interventions from different organisations, but nothing was working. But then Ormiston came along and helped me with the breathing space we needed.

'They helped me with everything. I'd never been in the benefits system before and they helped me get through that.

'My son was bunking off school and was being verbally and physically abusive to me, but they took the time to speak to him and earn his trust.

'They never pointed the finger at us, they just gave us the support we needed. I can't praise them enough. They have turned my life around. 'My son's attendance at school is now so much better. He's doing his GCSEs and he's predicted to get A to C grades in some of the subjects.

'I've been treated like a human being, rather than as a number in the system.'

The county council will work with its partners in the district councils, health service, police and voluntary sector, as well as families themselves, to establish local need and which projects are likely to make the biggest difference.

dan.grimmer@archant.co.uk