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A promising start for the Family Drug and Alcohol Court

By Jonathan Goodliffe, Solicitor (info@jgoodliffe.co.uk)

Alcohol and drug misuse is at the heart of many family problems, including those on which lawyers advise. 2 to 3% of all children in England and Wales under 16 are thought to have one or both parents who misuse illegal drugs. Up to 1 in 11 children may be living with parents with alcohol problems.

In serious cases parents may become unfit to look after their children. Their problems may be aggravated by factors such as psychiatric comorbidity, domestic violence, poverty and homelessness. Action taken by local authorities may result in the children going into care.

At a later stage children may be placed for adoption. The longer this is deferred the more difficult it may become to find a placement. Adoption may sometimes be the best ultimate outcome. Children of parents misusing alcohol or drugs are at risk of harm. Children brought up within the care system often have poor educational performance and prospects. A cycle may arise when the child develops their own addiction or when the mother repeatedly compensates for the loss of her child by getting pregnant again and again losing the child into the care system.

The court procedure may also be a problem. Cases may take years to reach a conclusion. Different judges, some of whom may not have appropriate experience, can be involved at different stages. The adversarial court procedure usually involves the examination and crossexamination of a variety of different expert witnesses instructed by the parties rather than the court. By the time the case is decided the children’s problems may have got worse rather than better.

Operation of FDAC

The London Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) was founded to address these problems. It started operating in January 2008 to help families in the boroughs of Camden, Islington and Westminster. It is running for an initial trial period of 3 years. It is funded partly by those boroughs and partly by Central Government. It follows in most respects the example of similar “problem solving courts” in the USA.

I asked Caroline Little of Hanne & Co for her impressions of FDAC. She sits on the Safeguarding and Voice of the Child subcommittees of the Family Justice Council. She told me that she had a number of cases in FDAC and added: start for the Family Drug and Alcohol Court

“The mother in a nearly concluded case recognises that she would not have succeeded in the normal court. In another case the parents had been addicts for over 20 years and on paper looked hopeless. They are doing very well - but of course have to be, and are, completely motivated.

“I believe that FDAC provides children in care proceedings with the best opportunity to be brought up in their natural family.

“The key component is the quality of the personnel in the FDAC team and the judges. They give parents early access to coordinated resources, and a really supportive, rather than punitive environment. Children’s solicitors and guardians ensure that the focus remains on the child and that children’s interests are not lost. A parent who is committed to caring for their child should be able to do so in the FDAC scheme. He or she will leave, not only with care of their children, but a real respect for professionals and the court.”

FDAC’s key features

The advantages of FDAC are as follows:

It is supported by a multidisciplinary team (the “FDAC team”) based at the Coram Foundation in Central London. The team includes a general manager and a service manager, a child psychiatrist and adult psychiatrist, a clinical nurse, a parental substance misuse specialist, 3 social workers and a parent mentor co-ordinator.

The FDAC team is also supported by a team of 12 guardians, one of which is usually appointed for the child[ren] in each case. The guardian will then appoint a solicitor to represent the child’s interests.

There are also 5 “parent mentors” who have themselves personal experience of addiction problems. In the first phase, the mentor provides initial support to the parent from the time of the first hearing through the assessment and planning stage. If parents decide to accept the FDAC service, a mentor may be matched to the parent, to undertake a specific type of support that will have been set out in the parent’s individual intervention plan.

The Court itself is based at the Inner London Family Proceedings Court in Wells Street. So far as possible all hearings take place on Mondays before two specialised district judges, Judge Nicholas Crichton and Judge Kenneth Grant. They are backed up where necessary by two other judges.

Parents facing court action relating to their children are given the choice whether to take part in the FDAC proceedings or to be dealt with under normal procedures. If they do take part, they sign an agreement to that effect. They are then given the intensive support of the FDAC team with a view to controlling their substance misuse, addressing their other problems and otherwise becoming fit to care for their children. If they succeed this is recognised at a “graduation ceremony”. If not their cases are transferred out of FDAC into the ordinary list. Non-graduation does not, however, necessarily equate with total failure. Parents may sometimes get significantly better but not necessarily to the extent of being able to retain care of their children.

Progress is usually reviewed every two weeks at short hearings typically attended by the parents, a member of the FDAC team, the guardian and/or mentor if available and a representative from the local authority. These hearings enable the judge to engage directly with the parents, to show a personal interest in the children, to motivate the parent to continue with the good work and to give full recognition to any progress. Judge Crichton described this to me as sometimes endeavouring to “turn every negative into a positive”.

The purpose of the procedure is to lead to an outcome within a much shorter time frame than is usually possible. Even if the outcome is that the parents cannot keep their children it is better that this should be decided sooner rather than later.

Parents are not usually represented by lawyers at these hearings unless a special need arises. If a contentious issue arises which requires a longer hearing this will usually take place outside the FDAC process. It is, nonetheless, essential that parents and children should receive legal advice.

Impressions of FDAC

I spent a Monday in court with Judge Grant and a shorter period with Judge Crichton. Several of the cases seemed to be going very well, others less so. This is not surprising. It is generally recognised that a common outcome of even the best form of addiction treatment is relapse or a series of relapses before long term recovery is achieved. Nonetheless the general impression was very encouraging.

I saw two cases where the mother was approaching “graduation”. In each case she came across as happy and healthy. The judge was shown a photograph of the children. He congratulated the mother on her progress and the improvement in her general health and appearance. There was no sign of any negative body language between the mother and the FDAC team or local authority representative. In other cases there was less room for optimism. These included one where the mother had recently been discharged from hospital and did not appear.

In one case the father addressed the court at some length. He expressed his apprehension that, despite all his efforts, he feared that he would not be able to progress his recovery from drug use within a short enough time scale to avoid losing his child. Everyone listened attentively and showed an appreciation of the father’s anguish. This may, perhaps, have been quite a fortifying experience for him.

Another notable feature of FDAC cases which I saw was the participation and support provided by members of the extended family, often a grandparent. Typically the extended family can feel powerless to help where parents are addicted. Knowledge of the support provided by FDAC must be a strong motivating factor. In one of the cases the extended family member was appointed special guardian to the child.

Interim report on the FDAC project

It was Judge Crichton who originated the FDAC project. It was launched, however, on the advice of, and is to be evaluated by, a research team led by Judith Harwin, professor of social work at Brunel University. The research team’s interim report was published in September 2009. It contains a full description of the court’s procedures and how lawyers have adapted to them. It also describes:

  • how the specialist FDAC team works
  • the demographics of parents and children in all cases entering FDAC in its first year
  • the research team’s approach in costing and evaluating FDAC in the final report due in July 2010
  • court observations by the research team, and
  • perspectives on FDAC from parents, judges, the FDAC team, and children’s guardians.

In presenting the report Professor Harwin commented:

“The speed with which FDAC has become a fully operational service and the strong partnerships being developed between agencies show this new multi-disciplinary approach has the potential to succeed in breaking the cycle of harm caused to families by substance misuse.” The report expresses concerns about the lower-than expected number of families taking part in the pilot. Since the report was completed, however, this has ceased to be an issue.

Not enough mentors

There has been some difficulty in recruiting mentors, so the qualifications for applicants have been relaxed. Aspiring mentors need to demonstrate first hand experience of substance misuse, either through their own experience or that of a close family member.

They do not necessarily now need to be a parent or have experienced care proceedings. They will need to demonstrate an understanding of the issues arising in FDAC. They will receive their own training and become full members of the team.

The future

It remains to be seen whether funding continues after the three year pilot despite constraints imposed by the recession. Judge Crichton is confi dent that the new approach will gain ground. He points out that there is scope for some of the FDAC methods to be extended into ordinary child residence and contact proceedings. He is hopeful that it may ultimately be possible for FDAC to extend its operations, possibly starting in South East London, in the neighbourhood of the Maudsley Hospital.

There are now a wide range of materials on the internet relating to FDAC’s activities. I have created a page http:// www.jgoodliffe.co.uk/fdac/ containing a full set of links.