family law, fdac, family drugs and alcohol court, innovation programme, Brunel University
Jo
Tunnard, RyanTunnardBrown 'Imagine
a child about to be born to a mother misusing substances. The mother could have
treatment costing about 12K, with a 40 per cent chance of the child then able to
stay with her mother. If you were being child centred you would say ‘yes’ to
that [from FDAC], because it would improve the likelihood of the child staying
in her family.' (Assistant
Director Social Care, at FDAC national network meeting in
2014)
A
national network meeting last week brought together people from 12 local
authority areas to develop their plans for opening their local FDAC next year. A
mix of children’s social care senior managers, family court judges and
administrators, and public health officers, they spent the day with colleagues
from the four established FDACs (London, Milton Keynes & Buckinghamshire,
Gloucester and East Sussex), to share knowledge and best
practice.
Sessions
dealt with the challenges of:
- developing
and funding an independent specialist multi-disciplinary
team
- making
court more family friendly
- training
clinicians and judges in the essential principles and practice of this
innovative problem-solving approach to care proceedings.
FDAC
springs from the US problem-solving court approach. The model was adapted for
the English and Welsh legal and social care system and piloted in London
boroughs from 2008.
The Brunel University 5-year independent evaluation, funded by the Nuffield
Foundation, found that families who had been through FDAC were more successful
than families whose case was heard in ordinary care proceedings. A higher
proportion of FDAC parents ceased to misuse substances; more were reunited with
their children at the end of proceedings; and return home was safer for the
children, with fewer incidents of subsequent neglect and fewer cases returned to
court. The non-adversarial way in which the case was heard in the FDAC court was
welcomed by professionals and families alike, with parents having the chance to
speak directly to ‘their’ judge who stayed with them throughout the case and
motivated them to work on their problems. The specialist team offered families a
mix of assessment and tailored interventions from themselves and local services.
Parents thought FDAC gave them a fair chance of regaining care of their
children, and there were fewer contested hearings when they were not able to do
so.
Last
year the President of the Family Division said: 'the simple reality is that
FDAC works'. He heralded FDAC as 'a vital component in the new Family
Court' and challenged Designated Family Judges to establish one in their
area.
The government’s Innovation Programme has now provided the opportunity for
us – a consortium of six agencies – to establish the FDAC National Unit to work
on rolling out the model nationally.
The
lead agency is the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, building on its
role in developing and managing the work of the London FDAC since its inception.
The other partners are Coram, the Centre for Justice Innovation,
RyanTunnardBrown, the Brunel University London and the University of
Lancaster.
The
National Unit will support those who attended the meeting last week and the many
other areas at different stages of developing an FDAC. The aim is to help local
areas develop FDACs with fidelity to the model, as evaluated. This involves a
designated judge and court working closely with a multi-disciplinary specialist
team; the involvement of key partners from the courts, children’s services,
health and adult treatment services all working together on individual cases;
strong governance through steering and operational groups; and careful selection
of the cases referred into FDAC. Other strands of the Unit’s work are training
to incorporate the lessons learnt so far from existing sites, developing the
arguments for value for money and sustainable funding, and continuing evaluation
of the outcomes for children and parents through using a common database to
capture relevant information at the start and end of the FDAC
service.
A
particular focus of activity for this year is the establishment of FDAC in 11
designated local authority areas: in Coventry, Kent and Medway, the South West
peninsular, and West Yorkshire. The Innovation Programme funding provides for
half the cost of the specialist team in the first year, with matched funding
provided locally. We will also be supporting Southampton as they launch their
FDAC.
In
the next article, in October, we will report on the opening of the first new
FDAC in these sites.
See also two articles in July Family Law
- 'Update on FDAC roll-out and the FDAC National Unit' and 'FDAC - the facts by Nick Crichton, Sophie Kershaw, Dr Mike Shaw and Kieron Daniels.'Find
out more:
Jo
Tunnard has a
background in teaching and the voluntary sector. She worked at the Child Poverty
Action Group, was the founding chief executive of Family Rights Group, and is an
independent consultant.
Jo
is also a long-standing Associate of
Research in
Practice,
an organisation supporting professionals to embed evidence-informed approaches
to the design and delivery of children’s services. In this article she describes
the work of six Partner agencies collaborating to extend the Family Drug and
Alcohol Court model (FDAC) across England.
This article was originally published on the Research in Practice blog and has been reproduced here with permission of the copyright owner.
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