Local government's ability to deliver has made possible the prospect of a £1bn funding boost to the Coalition's flagship troubled families programme over the next spending review period, the Local Government Association's annual conference heard today.

Louise Casey, head of the DCLG based troubled families unit told delegates in Manchester the success of the programme was a credit to local government and the additional funding would support a radical reform of systems.

Last week, in advance of the spending review announcement covering the single year 2015/16, Treasury ministers confirmed £200m would be allocated to intervene in a further 400,000 households.

A cash injection on this scale would support a more than threefold increase in the number of chaotic families given help attend school and find work - compared with the 120,000 families helped in the current three-year £448m budgeted initiative with which all 152 upper tier authorities are involved.

Addressing the first day of the conference today, Ms Casey said the Government appreciated the programme was not easy to achieve.  Each family requires one worker and one plan, rather than the traditional use of multiple agencies.  But she insisted this extra funding would help move away from the 'tick box' approach to safeguarding.

Ms Casey also called on council chief executives to take leadership of the programme.

‘We have put our faith in local government and it has paid off,' she said. ‘It is now time for radical reform and that will take leadership.'

Ms Casey also cited figures released by Wandsworth LBC showing each troubled family costs the council £29,000 per family, per year. She said that councils had tried to help these families through times of growth and times of austerity, and not getting it right was no longer an option.