The BBC Reports: Social workers have been urged to get "on the sofas" of England's most dysfunctional families to help them break a "grim" cycle of abuse.

Government adviser Louise Casey said some households could get daily visits as part of a scheme to target 120,000 of the most troubled families.

In a report for ministers she details a picture of welfare dependency and sexual abuse going back generations.

She said it was "wrong that we allow them to carry on living this way".

The government says 120,000 "troubled families" in England cost taxpayers £9bn every year - and want to turn their lives around by 2015.

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