Family Drug and Alcohol Courts generate “significant savings” for local authorities in comparison to standard care proceedings: report

The Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) could save local authorities almost £10,000 per case in legal costs compared to standard care proceedings, according to a financial analysis carried out by the Centre for Justice Innovation.

The analysis, commissioned by the Department for Education, concluded that FDACs generate “significant savings” for local authorities in comparison to standard care proceedings, and that they achieve “significantly better” outcomes for children and families.

The Family Drug and Alcohol Court is an alternative family court for care proceedings, specially designed to work with parents who struggle with drug and alcohol misuse.

According to the report, children in FDAC care proceedings are “significantly more likely” to remain or be returned to the care of their parents at the end of proceedings compared to children in standard care proceedings (47% versus 27%).

As a result, the Family Drug and Alcohol Court saves local authorities £58,614 per case in local authority placement costs in the five years after the end of proceedings.

Further, compared to standard care proceedings, FDAC saves local authorities £9,739 per case in legal representation.

This is attributed to fewer hearings, fewer contested final hearings, and those contested hearings that do occur being on average much shorter.

Making the case for investment, the report concluded that even once set-up costs are taken into account, an FDAC service reaches a “break-even” point for local authorities in its second year of operations.

The financial analysis found that, on average, FDAC costs £18,000 per case and produces an average direct benefit saving per case of £74,068, the vast majority of which (£73,357) goes to local authorities in “predominantly cashable savings”.

It is estimated that a standard care proceedings case costs a local authority, on average, £120,000.

Report authors said: “A typical FDAC service, supporting 30 families a year may cost around £540,000. Given the current difficult fiscal environment for local authorities it may be challenging to make a case for the upfront investment in an FDAC service, even given the relatively short timeframe for the service to pay off.

“However, this analysis shows that, over the medium term, an FDAC service can make a contribution to reducing the pressure on local authorities’ children’s services budgets by significantly reducing expenditure on care proceedings and on foster and residential care placements.”

In February, a judge sitting in the Family Court highlighted the successful use of the FDAC model in a case where the main presenting difficulty was domestic abuse.

FDACs have been in existence since 2008 and are currently available in 39 local authorities.

Lottie Winson