Sending intervention teams and family coaches into people’s homes to help them sort out their lives is proving an effective approach when it comes to improving problem neighbourhoods, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.

The experiment currently being carried out in the Rotterdam neighbourhood Pendrecht, officially the second worst area in the Netherlands, is having a marked effect, the paper says.
But, says the paper, if the tone in which the help is offered is aggressive or patronising, it can have be counterproductive.
The experiment, in which councils and housing associations work closely together, sees the authorities helping people with their debt problems and encouraging children to go to school and adults to find work.