Still waiting: the court that works
The evidence has stood the test of time. Successive governments have not.
To mention the state of Britain’s justice system in 2026 is to generate a mood of despair - see today’s headlines on prison overcrowding.
Coverage tends to focus on delay and decay, rather than innovation and inspiration.
Family Drug and Alcohol Courts are an exception.
The specialist courts have been hailed as “life-changing”, transforming outcomes for families through problem-solving as opposed to confrontation.
They combine judicial oversight with the intensive support of multi-disciplinary teams - psychologists, social workers, addiction experts - in a bid to tackle the root cause of problems and keep children out of care.
Judges are even encouraged to build rapport with parents seeking to turn their lives around through regular informal meetings, without lawyers present.
The results are striking.
Parents in the FDAC system are four times more likely to abstain from drugs and alcohol; a 2023 study also found that 52% of children were reunited with their parents - compared with 13% in standard care proceedings.
The court’s ability to also deal with underlying issues of domestic abuse - evident in 91% of cases seen last year - has also been cited by those desperate for FDAC to be rolled out in every postcode across the country.
But despite nearly two decades of compelling evidence, judicial sources say FDAC is at a crossroads - too reliant on scarce local authority funding and vulnerable to the government upheaval of recent years.
Since the first FDAC opened its doors in London in 2008, there have been:
14 justice secretaries
13 education secretaries
14 children’s ministers
To put it mildly: it is an extraordinary turnover of individuals responsible for some of the country’s most vulnerable children.
There is hope that the Andy Burnham-era will provide consistency and a potentially more powerful embrace of FDAC, given the model’s rapid expansion in the new prime minister’s beloved Manchester since first opening in 2021.
The Greater Manchester FDAC now supports families in Bolton, Tameside, Stockport, Wigan and Manchester.
Kate Green, one of Burnham’s closest confidantes and his former deputy during his Manchester mayoralty, is a known backer of the model.
It is not expansion, however, but survival that is occupying the minds of many on the FDAC frontline.
Two FDACs in the Black Country and Newcastle have closed in the past year due to budget cuts, with fears more could follow without a more sustainable funding model.
In one of his final acts as president of the family court division, Sir Andrew McFarlane warned that the loss of any FDAC represented a “missed opportunity” to help families and save the taxpayer in the long-term.
With drug and alcohol use a major factor in nearly two thirds of cases in which a local authority is triggering care proceedings due to suspected abuse or neglect, the need for targeted help is clear.
Eyes will now be on Burnham’s fledgling government.
The new prime minister has used his opening fortnight in office to pledge to solve the country’s entrenched issues, such as the social care crisis and the sheer number of young people out of work.
But what of the near record levels of children still entering the care system? There were an estimated 82,000 in England last year - a rise of 25% since 2011.
If FDAC is to be fully embraced as one solution - and not continually fighting for its future - it will require broad ministerial backing.
The spotlight now turns to new Education Secretary Lucy Powell, Justice Secretary Alex Norris and Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister as to whether they believe FDAC deserves that greater backing.
The evidence has stood the test of time. Multiple governments have not.
If the Burnham administration can break that trend, one of the justice system’s quiet success stories could finally have the sustained support it has long lacked.