An initiative to help 215 "troubled" families in Bath and north east Somerset turn their lives around is said to be making good progress.
The national programme aims to use a multi-agency approach to offer support to those deemed to be "hardest to help" households.
It is targeted at those who are caught up in crime and anti-social behaviour and affected by long-term unemployment, truancy and poverty.
In B&NES, the Connecting Families team has already been working well with 14 households and is hoping to continue the good work over the next year.
Councillor Dine Romero, cabinet member for early years, children and youth, said: "We are very pleased to be recognised by the Department for Communities and Local Government for having a major positive impact on the lives of 14 families since B&NES Council's Connecting Families initiative launched in April.
"We are on track to meet our goals, as agreed with central government, to achieve similar good results for at least 25 per cent of the 215 families identified as needing support by early 2014.
"This sets us in good stead to progress further with the rest of the families who we are offering targeted help to – through the dedicated support of our Connecting Families team and commissioned activities from local voluntary sector partners."
Nationally, the government wants to see 120,000 families supported over a three-year period, with communities secretary Eric Pickles saying he was pleased with the progress made so far.
He said: "I am delighted that our programme is already helping half of our target of 120,000 troubled families at its mid-way stage.
"Councils are making great strides in a very short space of time, dealing with families that have often had problems and created serious issues in their communities for generations.
"These results show that these problems can be dealt with through a no nonsense and common sense approach, bringing down costs to the taxpayer at the same time."
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