Just under half of children returned to live with their families as result of entering Family Drug and Alcohol Court, annual report reveals

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has published his second annual report on the Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs), of which he states he has “long been a supporter”.

FDACs are a problem-solving, court-driven, approach to care proceedings, designed to work with parents who struggle with drug and alcohol use.

The Family President noted that 2022/23 has seen a “number of developments” in FDAC, particularly the publication of research by Foundations, which was the first multi-site evaluation of the courts conducted to date.

The evaluation was conducted to understand the effect of FDAC proceedings on reunification for children and families at the end of care proceedings compared to standard care proceedings.

Sir Andrew said: “The statistically significant findings show that, compared to similar families going through standard care proceedings, FDAC families are much more likely to be reunified at the end of care proceedings, are much more likely to have ceased using substances, and their children much less likely to be placed in care.”

The research also found that from the perspective of the family court itself, FDAC cases are much less likely to result in contested hearings and much less likely to use expert witnesses.

The Family President revealed that this year, two FDACs - Somerset and Kent, had to close due to a lack of local funding. However, during the same period, a FDAC opened in Wiltshire, and one was expanded in Greater Manchester.

Another key development cited by Sir Andrew was the efforts by national Government to open up new drug treatment funding for local authorities to fund FDACs, via the Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant.

Outlining this year’s key statistics of FDACs, the report noted that 191 families entered FDAC's in 2022/23. The average FDAC case took 43 weeks, compared to 46 weeks in standard cases.

Looking at the challenges facing families, the report found that 43% of parents entering FDAC between 1 Apr 2022 and 31 March 2023 reported being affected by domestic abuse currently, and 78% showed signs of mental illness.

57% of parents completed the FDAC programme, and 53% reduced or ceased their alcohol use.

Looking at outcomes for children, 45% were returned to live with their families and 30% were placed with a friend or family members, the report revealed.

The Family President thanked Mr Justice Keehan and Professor Judith Harwin of Lancaster University for the work they are doing in the Public Law Working Group (PLWG), “to translate the recommendations of the Independent Care Review and to bring the learning from FDAC and other problem-solving courts into standard care proceedings”.

The Centre for Justice innovation, who also published a report on FDAC this month, meanwhile found that compared to standard care proceedings, FDAC generates “cashable savings” for local authorities, “as well as providing financial benefits for other statutory agencies”.

The organisation concluded that research to date into FDAC offers “consistent and strong” evidence that it represents “an effective intervention which can reduce the number of children being permanently removed from their families, increase the number of stable placements that children go to, decrease the number of children placed in local authority care and increase the number of parents becoming abstinent from substance use”.

The Centre for Justice Innovation added that there is a “strong case” for additional investment to expand FDAC across England and Wales, so that all families can assess the benefits.

Lottie Winson