The case for FDAC: benefits, challenges and ways forwards

DJ Richard O’Hagan

The article explores the differences between care proceedings in FDAC and conventional care proceedings, including the differences in procedure, support for parents and the assessment model. Most importantly, it looks at the difference between what the parents themselves experience in FDAC proceedings as compared to conventional care proceedings. It sets out the hard data that demonstrates that the FDAC model works in terms of supporting parents with substance misuse problems towards reduction or abstinence, and in achieving improved outcomes for families and children. It then explores some of the systemic challenges faced by FDAC, primarily as a result of FDAC being an entirely voluntary scheme with no national procedural or funding framework which gives rise to local inconsistencies, a postcode lottery and uncertainty for individual teams when funding is insecure. The articles ways that these problems might be addressed.