Pioneering court will decide future of addicts’ families

A SPECIAL court being set up in Camden to protect the children of drug addicts and alcoholics will be the first of its kind in the country.
Under a pilot scheme at Inner London Family Court in Well Street, Fitzrovia, a specially trained judge will decide who has custody of children where a parent’s drug or drink addiction is a key factor.
Town Hall social services chiefs say the current court system makes it too hard to take children into care.
They are working with district judge Nick Crichton to develop the new court, based on ideas borrowed from America’s drug-blighted inner cities.
Mr Crichton, who hopes to have the court operating by next year, said: “One of the things that is very depressing is the number of children born to drug users.
“The children suffer withdrawal symptoms from the moment they are born and the distance they start behind the line compared to other children is immense.
“We take many children into care but there is more we could do.”
The issue of protecting children on the council’s at-risk register came into focus earlier this month with the revelation that murdered Somers Town six-year-old Ukleigha Batten-Frogatt had been on the list.
Social services keep a close watch on 2,000 families, including 75 where drug or alcohol is putting a child at risk.
Camden has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the country and a chronic crack cocaine problem, despite high-profile police operations. But behind the more visible addicts are often children in desperate need of help.
Social services routinely hear of children who miss school, misbehave or are exposed to suffering as a result of addicted parents. Studies show all have far worse prospects in life.
Catherine Doran, deputy director of social services at Camden Council, is now pressing for the specialist court, supported by colleagues in neighbouring Islington and Westminster.
She said: “Social workers find family courts are too parent-centred. We find it hard to get courts to understand the risks that drugs or alcohol pose, and too often they don’t accept the risks we try to explain to them.”
Mr Crichton agreed that the courts were often powerless to act and that social workers were “underpaid and overworked”.
He said: “Obviously, children who are very young and at risk in those situations are removed, but too often we lose contact with the mother and she’ll go on to have seven, eight or nine children, if not 10, 11 and 12. The problem is never addressed.
“It’s no good to say to a mother whose child you have just taken to come back in six days’ time. If you do that, you either lose her entirely or within the six days she’s slipped further down the slope.
“In America they have a problem-solving approach. They’ll tell a mother: ‘Go downstairs with this lady and work out a programme to have the best chance of getting your child back. We really believe this is your best chance. Then come back this afternoon and the court will sit again’.”
The spread of crack cocaine has become the biggest problem facing social services in Camden in the last seven years, according to Ms Doran.
She said: “Crack is very, very difficult to manage.”
Around 360 children are currently in care in Camden.