This report makes the case for all local agencies (local authorities, the police, health services and others) to examine what they spend on troubled families, how they spend it, and how effective that expenditure is in helping turn lives around and preventing the emergence of future troubled families. Public services cannot afford to spend their resources ineffectively when reacting to the social problems of these families. With the economic challenges that the country currently faces there is an even more powerful impetus to ensure this is not the case.