Publication of report: 'Evaluation of Family Drug and Alcohol Courts'

From the report:

"Key findings

There were limitations with the methodology and data collection in this evaluation which mean that we cannot attribute the effects found entirely to FDAC and we are unable to draw firm conclusions about impact of FDAC based on this study. Bearing in mind this caveat, we found:

• Children with a primary carer in FDAC care proceedings were more likely to be reunified with their primary carer at the end of the care proceeding in comparison to children with a primary carer in non-FDAC care proceedings (52.0% versus 12.5%).
• A higher proportion of FDAC than comparison parents had ceased to misuse drugs or alcohol by the end of the proceedings (33.6% versus 8.1%).
• The proportion of hearings being contested was lower for FDAC than standard care proceedings (4.2% versus 23.8%).
• A lower proportion of FDAC cases used external expert witness assessments compared with non-FDAC care proceedings (7.7% versus 96.1%).
• Children in FDAC sites had lower probability of being placed in LA care compared with non-FDAC care proceedings (28.6% versus 54.7%).
• The positive outcomes for cases supported by FDAC is in line with the evidence on FDAC in the WWCSC’s Evidence Store and the literature base."