New way of working with families in crisis commended by government’s Family Justice Review
The only pilot Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) in the UK has been successful in improving outcomes for children by tackling the substance misuse of parents at an early stage of care proceedings, according to an independent evaluation of the court published today.
Parents who had been through the FDAC system were more likely to stop their substance misuse than those in ordinary care proceedings, meaning fewer children were taken into care. When parents were unable to control their substance misuse, FDAC made swifter decisions to find permanent alternative homes for the children.
The integrated approach also has potential to reduce costs. These findings from an independent evaluation of the FDAC were echoed in the Family Justice Review interim report published last week, which said FDAC showed ‘considerable promise’ and recommended a further roll out.
What is FDAC?
FDAC is a new way of dealing with care proceedings when parental substance misuse is causing harm to children. This is the main issue in up to two thirds of all care proceedings and outcomes are often poor for the children concerned. Unlike conventional care proceedings, parents in FDAC see the same judge throughout and meet with them every fortnight. They also receive support from a unique multi-disciplinary team, including fast access to substance misuse services and assistance with other issues such as housing, domestic violence and financial hardship.
The FDAC pilot is being run in the Inner London Family Proceedings Court at Wells Street and the multi-disciplinary team is provided by - The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with children’s charity Coram. Three London Boroughs - Camden, Islington and Westminster- are taking part. The pilot began in January 2008 and will continue until March 2012. It is based on a model widely used in the USA which is showing promising results.
Families reunited and substance misuse controlled The independent evaluation team, led by Professor Judith Harwin at Brunel University and funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Home Office, found that FDAC has been more successful at family reunifications than ordinary proceedings. By comparison, there were 18% more FDAC mothers reunited with their children by the final court order (39% v 21%). This was because more FDAC parents controlled their substance misuse. The courts were dealing with very serious cases. Parents had long histories of substance misuse and other problems. All but two parents said they were in favour of the FDAC approach.
Cost savings
More children staying with their families means that local authorities save money.
The evaluation also shows that FDAC reduced costs in other ways such as shorter care placements, shorter court hearings and fewer contested cases.
“We are delighted that the Family Justice Review recognises the success of FDAC in breaking the cycle of harm caused to families by substance misuse and we hope the government takes heed of the recommendation to roll out the model further”, said Professor Judith Harwin.
Notes to editors
Contact: Fran Bright, Communications Manager, 020 7681 9623 (out of hours 07891 730937)
- The Family Drug and Alcohol (FDAC) Final Report (and a free-standing executive summary) is available to download from the Brunel University website: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/fdacresearch
- The Family Justice Review published its interim report on 31 March 2011. It references FDAC on pages 140-141 and again in Annex O (Pages 214-217). The report is published on the MoJ website: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/family-justice-review.htm
- FDAC sits at the Inner London Family Proceedings Court in Wells Street. Between January 2008 and the end of June 2009, 55 families (77 children) entered the court. The evaluation compares this sample to a comparison sample of 31 families (49 children) involved in ordinary care proceedings in two other local authorities during the same period.
- The evaluation of FDAC is being funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Home Office. Cases were followed up for 6 months from the first hearing and it was also possible to track 41 FDAC and 19 comparison cases to final order. Interviews were held with parents and with the FDAC judges, team and court staff and commissioners involved in the set-up and implementation of FDAC. Focus groups were held with parent mentors and with professionals who had cases in FDAC in the first 18 months (lawyers, guardians, social workers and staff from adult treatment services).
- The total funding secured for the five-year FDAC project is £1,340,000.The Ministry of Justice has contributed £390,000; DCSF (now DfE) has committed £450,000; and the Home Office has given £50,000. The remaining £450,000 is being contributed equally by the three local authorities.
[f1] [f1]Figures don’t include funding of extension.