Changing lives at the Family Drug & Alcohol Court

Speaking last week at the Family Drug and Alcohol Court Judges Conference at Inner Temple, London, Lord Peter Jackson said: ‘FDAC has indeed been resilient, but it remains worryingly small—perhaps available to only 2% of children in care cases.

‘There are many local authorities who would like an FDAC, and the judges in the family court are strongly in support.’

Lord Peter Jackson, lead judge for FDAC, said parents under FDAC jurisdiction were four times likelier to abstain while 52% of children returned to parents compared to 13% in standard care proceedings. He cited savings to the public purse, with every FDAC case saving ‘an average of £58,000 in state care costs, and £15,000 in legal costs’.