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Family law guide
Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC): A Parent’s Guide
Part of: Interim and Final Care Orders: What Happens and How to Protect Your Position
A family drug and alcohol court (FDAC) is a different way of running care proceedings when a parent’s drug or alcohol use is a main reason the council has gone to court. The same judge reviews your progress every fortnight. A specialist team works with you on a plan for change instead of simply assessing you for the court (FDAC national website, the FDAC model).
This guide is for a parent in England or Wales whose children are, or may soon be, the subject of care proceedings. You may have heard the word FDAC from a social worker, a lawyer or the court. It explains what FDAC asks of you, who it is for, where it runs and how it fits the legal timetable. For the wider picture of children cases, see our child law guide.
Key takeaways
- FDAC sits inside care proceedings, so the court still decides whether your children can live with you (FDAC model).
- You cannot opt out of the proceedings, but joining FDAC is voluntary (Centre for Justice Innovation, FDAC eligibility briefing).
- Once a fortnight the judge speaks with you directly, without lawyers present (Centre for Justice Innovation, FDAC).
- A lapse does not automatically end your place. FDAC teams test regularly but do not take a zero-tolerance approach (Centre for Justice Innovation).
- The 26-week limit still applies. Each extension can last up to eight weeks and needs specific justification (Children Act 1989, s.32).
Has the council or the court mentioned FDAC in your case? You can book a free initial consultation before the first hearing, when the decision to join is usually made.
What is a family drug and alcohol court?
It is a problem-solving version of care proceedings for parents whose drug or alcohol use has put their children at risk. The Centre for Justice Innovation describes it as a “therapeutic, problem-solving court model” that gives parents intensive support to tackle their substance use (Centre for Justice Innovation, FDAC).
The first FDAC started in London in 2008 as a three-year pilot (Centre for Justice Innovation). In ordinary proceedings, experts assess you and report to the court. In FDAC, a multi-disciplinary team does that work and also helps you change, with key work, therapy, referrals to treatment and regular testing. The judge stays with the case and sees you often.
It is still a family court. The council has applied for a care order or supervision order. However, the court can only make one if your child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm because of the care given (Children Act 1989, s.31(2)). Our guide to interim and final care orders explains those orders.
How is FDAC different from ordinary care proceedings?
The legal questions are the same, but the way the court reaches its answer is different. Instead of waiting months for expert reports, you work through an agreed plan with a specialist team while the same judge checks your progress every two weeks.
| Feature | Ordinary care proceedings | Family drug and alcohol court |
|---|---|---|
| Judge | Hearings at set stages of the case | The FDAC judge reviews progress throughout and works closely with the team |
| Contact with the judge | Mainly through your lawyer at hearings | A review once a fortnight where the judge speaks with you directly, without lawyers |
| Assessment | Expert reports prepared for the court | A specialist team assesses you and replaces the expert witness report |
| Support | Depends on what the council and local services offer | Key work, therapy and treatment referrals built into an intervention plan |
| Testing and lapses | Test results go into the evidence | Regular testing, and help to recover from a lapse or relapse |
| Timetable | 26 weeks unless the court extends it | The same 26 weeks, with an issues resolution hearing normally in week 20 |
Sources: the FDAC model and the Centre for Justice Innovation description of fortnightly non-lawyer reviews, the team and testing.
Which cases are suitable for FDAC?
FDAC is for care proceedings where a parent’s drug or alcohol use is a central reason for the council’s concern. Beyond that, each team sets its own criteria, so a case that one area accepts may be refused in another (CJI eligibility briefing).
The original London pilot had only a few exclusions (CJI eligibility briefing): florid psychosis, serious domestic violence posing a major risk to the children, or a history of severe physical or sexual abuse of children. Today some teams describe themselves as open doors. Others take a case only where substance use is one of the main issues, the parent is open about it from the start and shows they want to engage.
The same briefing says research has found no clear way to predict which parents will succeed. Success in the London evaluation was not linked to how long someone had used, which substances, or how many children they had. So a long history does not rule you out, although capacity limits mean not every eligible family is offered a place.
Where do family drug and alcohol courts run?
FDAC is only available where a local team exists. The national website lists 13 specialist FDAC teams working in 18 courts and 35 local authorities, plus a problem-solving court team in Bradford. All of them are in England, and the same page records that the Cardiff and the Vale FDAC has closed, so there is currently no listed team in Wales (FDAC national website, current FDACs).
The listed teams are Birmingham and Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire, East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Leeds, London, Liverpool, Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Pan Bedfordshire, Southampton, Wiltshire, and the West Yorkshire Problem Solving Court in Bradford. Coverage changes as teams open, so ask your social worker or lawyer whether your court takes FDAC referrals.
What does the family drug and alcohol court process ask of you?
It asks you to commit to an intervention plan, attend court every fortnight and keep working with the team for the life of the case. The steps below follow the FDAC model, which runs alongside the Public Law Outline with some minor exceptions (FDAC model).
- At the first case management hearing, you can join FDAC and agree to a full assessment by the team within the next five days.
- The team assesses you and drafts an intervention plan, which every party agrees.
- At a further case management hearing in weeks two to four, you formally commit to FDAC.
- Then, once a fortnight, you attend a non-lawyer review with the judge. Your key worker and social worker go too, and sometimes the children’s guardian. A progress report goes round before each review.
- The issues resolution hearing is normally in week 20, and the court then moves towards a final decision.
FDAC calls this period a trial for change. It is demanding, because you are working on your substance use and on the other problems in your life while the case runs.
What happens if you relapse during FDAC?
A lapse does not automatically end your place. The team tests parents regularly, but FDACs do not take a zero-tolerance approach and help parents recover from lapses or relapses (Centre for Justice Innovation). Being honest at the next review usually matters more than the lapse itself, because the judge is looking for a pattern of change. Our guides to alcohol testing in family law and to what a positive drug test means explain how results are read.
How does FDAC fit the 26-week care timetable?
FDAC works inside the same legal deadline as any care case. The court must decide the application within 26 weeks of the day it was issued. It can extend that only where an extension is necessary to resolve the proceedings justly (Children Act 1989, s.32(1)(a) and (5)).
Each extension can last up to eight weeks, and the law says extensions are not to be granted routinely (s.32(7) and (8)). For FDAC cases, the national guidance says an extension can be asked for if the children may return home at week 19 (FDAC model). In practice, that gives a parent who is making real progress a little more time to show it lasts.
FDAC does not begin before proceedings. If you have received a letter before proceedings, our guide to the pre-proceedings letter explains that stage. Being open about drug or alcohol use at that meeting can help if FDAC is offered later.
Do family drug and alcohol courts work?
The evidence is encouraging, with caveats. A 2023 evaluation covered nine local authorities and 13 FDAC sites. Overall, it found that 52.0% of children with a primary carer in FDAC were reunified with that carer, against 12.5% in ordinary proceedings (Foundations, Evaluation of FDAC, 2023).
By the end of proceedings, 33.6% of FDAC parents had stopped misusing drugs or alcohol, compared with 8.1% of the comparison parents. However, the evaluators say the results cannot be fully attributed to FDAC because of limits in the data and method. An earlier study of the London FDAC, five years on, found 58% of reunited mothers were estimated to have stayed off substances, against 24% in the comparison group (Centre for Justice Innovation).
A worked example, week by week
Take a father whose two children were placed with their grandmother under an interim care order after police found him unable to care for them. At the first hearing he agrees to join FDAC, and the team assesses him that week. By week three the plan is agreed: alcohol treatment, a parenting group and regular tests. He commits at the further hearing. At week nine he drinks after a family funeral and tells the judge at the next review. The team adjusts his support, and his later tests are clear. By week 19 the plan is for the children to come home, so his lawyer asks for a short extension to test the move. The court still makes the final decision on the evidence.
We advised a mother whose baby was the subject of care proceedings after a hair strand test showed cocaine use. Her case was put forward for the local FDAC at the first hearing. She worried that saying yes would read as an admission of everything in the council’s evidence. We explained what the trial for change would ask of her, why being open about her use from the start mattered to the team, and how the fortnightly reviews with the judge would run. She chose to sign up, and we helped her keep a simple dated record of every test, session and review. Each case still turns on its own evidence.
Family drug and alcohol court check: is FDAC open to you?
Three answers show where FDAC fits your case, where parents often go wrong, and the decision only you can make. Your answers never leave this page, and the page stores nothing.
0 of 3 answered
Answer all three questions to see where FDAC fits
- Where FDAC fits your stageWhen parents normally join, and what happens next.
- Where parents often go wrongThe mistake that most often costs a place or a chance.
The decision a checklist cannot make for youThe judgement that turns on your case and your area.
Expert Tip
Before you agree to FDAC, ask the team what a typical fortnight will look like for you: appointments, tests, groups and the review itself. Then look honestly at your work, childcare and travel. The parents who struggle are often the ones whose diary becomes too much, so they start missing sessions. A missed session can look worse in a review than a lapse you are open about.
Hannah Overton, Complex Children Specialist & Client Support
Family drug and alcohol court: frequently asked questions
What drug tests do they do in family court?
In FDAC, the specialist team tests parents regularly as part of the plan, and the results feed into the progress report before each fortnightly review. Outside FDAC, the court can direct expert testing, often hair strand analysis. The Court of Appeal has said a hair strand result must be read with its limits and its place in the overall evidence, and a judge should not jump to a conclusion about drug use from a report summary alone (Re D (Children: Interim Care Order: Hair Strand Testing) [2024] EWCA Civ 498).
Will I lose my children if I fail a drug test in FDAC?
Not automatically. FDAC teams do not take a zero-tolerance approach and help parents recover from a lapse. The court looks at the whole pattern of change across the case, and being honest about a lapse at the next review helps the team and the judge see that pattern.
Do I still have a lawyer if I join FDAC?
Yes. Your lawyer stays with you for the court hearings and the legal decisions. The only difference is the fortnightly non-lawyer review, where you speak with the judge directly and your lawyer does not attend.
Can I ask for FDAC if there is no team in my area?
Only where a local team exists and your court takes its referrals. The national website lists 13 FDAC teams and a problem-solving court team in Bradford, all in England. Where there is none, you can still ask the court for assessments and support that give you a fair chance to show change within the timetable.
Offered a place in a family drug and alcohol court?
Two things often go wrong here. The first is deciding about FDAC at the first hearing without understanding what the trial for change will ask of you every fortnight. The second is playing down drug or alcohol use at the start, which can cost you a place or the team's trust later in the case.
A free initial consultation is a conversation with a specialist, who gives you initial advice tailored to your circumstances. It does not include drafting or reviewing documents.
Book a free initial consultation or call 0330 094 5880.
You can also read how pathfinder courts borrow from the same problem-solving approach, or return to our child law guide.
General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.
