Family drug and alcohol courts 'at risk' if national unit closes
Neil Puffett
Monday, July 16, 2018
Family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) across England will be left to "wither on the vine" if a national support unit is forced to close due to a lack of funding, a professional association for social workers has warned.
The unit supports the work of 10 family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs), which bring the judiciary and multi-agency services together to help substance-misusing parents involved in care proceedings to quit their addiction and keep their family together.
The unit has relied on Department for Education innovation funding since 2015 but this money runs out in September and it is faced with closure unless a new source of income is found.
Following an urgent meeting in the House of Lords attended by, among others, former children's minister Tim Loughton, Labour shadow children's minister Emma Lewell-Buck, and retired District Judge Nicholas Crichton, who helped establish the first FDAC in 2008, Nagalro described the government's decision not to continue funding the unit as "short-sighted and financially illiterate".
"Whilst acknowledging that the closure will not directly lead to the closure of any of the 10 current FDACs, Nagalro is concerned that, without the national unit to support, train and promote those bodies and to maintain consistency, they will simply be left to wither on the vine," a Nagalro statement said.
"One by one, cash-strapped local authorities, encouraged by the withdrawal of central government support, will find that funds can be directed elsewhere.
"Without the co-ordination, training and promotional activities of the national unit, it is unlikely that new FDACs will be set up.
"This is a tragedy for the families who are helped by the FDAC, a severe blow to the children and, in the medium to long-term will mean increased costs to the public."
Click links below for related CYP Now content:
How specialist court helps families overcome substance misuse
What kind of family support can avert looming care system crisis?
Since their launch in 2008, a number of studies have reported that FDACs are effective at keeping families together and saving money.
A Brunel University evaluation of FDACs reported that mothers and fathers who go through the FDAC process are more likely to quit drugs and alcohol before care proceedings finish.
The same study said more than a third of mothers whose cases were handled by a FDAC were reunited with their children at the end of the proceedings compared with just 19 per cent under standard care proceedings.