Family Drug and Alcohol Court - Information for families

What happens next?

Between the first and second court hearing you will do an assessment day at the FDAC office and you have a meeting with us that we call the Intervention Planning Meeting.
This is where the FDAC team will work with you to agree a plan of work. We call this the Intervention Plan. The assessment and the Intervention Plan are written up as a report, and you can discuss this report with your solicitor and any other person.

When the Plan is agreed the judge will say this is what everyone is going to follow. This usually happens at the second court hearing, about 4 weeks after the case starts in court.

The judge then expects everyone to do their best to follow the Plan. To show that you are committed to your bits of the Plan, the judge will ask you to sign an agreement to be open and honest with the team and the court.

After the second hearing, the ‘trial for change’ begins. As part of this, you will have a court hearing without your lawyer each fortnight for up to 30 minutes.

These are to encourage you in your treatment, to see how things are going, and to check that the Intervention Plan is still right for you. This is also the time to solve any problems along the way and to make decisions about a life-long plan for your child, and to do so as quickly as is possible.