Ministers to volunteer in family support project

Emma Harrison

The Prime Minister has encouraged many of his ministers and special advisers to 'adopt' a number of families with social problems, as part of a new volunteering scheme.

Intending to lead by example the Ministers will become 'Family Champions' providing mentoring support and advice on a range of issues to help struggling families to cope.

Ministers include Chris Grayling, the Employment Minister, and Children & Families Minister Tim Loughton who will be supporting workless families by helping them to manage their finances, guide them through the system and where feasible introduce them to their contacts to help encourage their employment.

The project is a direct response to the recent London and city riots and aims to show that the government is taking the issue seriously by working together to tackle the social problems that were partly responsible for the rioting. The government has identified that there are 120,000 families locked into generations of welfare costing the taxpayer around £8bn a year, with 50,000 'hardcore' cases with multiple problems.

Ministers will be supported by social entrepreneur Emma Harrison, chair of Action 4 Employment, who has persuaded them to get involved. She told the press on Sunday 'This isn't a gimmick, this is me saying to government let's all get together and tackle this problem. It's a simple idea, it's not big society, it's people helping people.' Harrison will be putting her own money into the poject, supporting schemes in Hull, Blackpool and London.