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West Yorkshire Designated Family Judge HHJ Nancy Hillier has been involved with the Barca-Leeds Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDAC) service since it started as a pilot in Leeds in late 2015. As part of her “My Barca Story” HHJ Hillier shares her insights and aspirations.
The Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) is a Barca-Leeds led project and adopts a problem-solving therapeutic approach that aims to improve outcomes for children involved in care proceedings, by supporting parents to address their substance use and related problems.
We asked HHJ Hillier how her career led her to becoming a judge and she told us about her initial hesitancy to pursue that kind of career.
I have to say that at first, I really didn't want to be a judge when I was a barrister. I didn't think it was for me.
I thought all judges were old and very dull and I didn't want to be like them but as time went on and I got older (and more dull?!), I decided that actually I would like to be a part time judge. A friend of mine suggested that I applied for a post in London at the Principal Registry of the Family Division. I applied and was successful. Sitting at the PRFD gave me lots of experience of unusual and difficult cases. Once I started doing ‘the job’, I loved it. This experience led me to eventually apply to become a full-time judge and I've been a full-time judge now for 13 years.
When asked about FDAC and how its’ approach to care proceedings differed from the ‘standard’ model, HHJ Hillier talked about the kind of relationship the different models have.
The ‘standard’ model of care proceedings can be very adversarial and very ‘litigation’ orientated. These are difficult proceedings involving intervention of the state in family life. There are obvious difficulties - for example I think sometimes that parents don't understand that the social worker is there working for the children, rather than there for them and it can be very divisive.
Parents often have all sorts of problems and issues going on in their lives and in many cases the social worker is there to investigate and to assess rather than to ‘assess for change’. I think that the big difference between that model and problem-solving courts is the focus on the adversarial system.
In my view it’s useful to offer an element of bespoke assessment tailoring of the particular type of case, to that particular family and what they need. That is the essence of FDAC and problem-solving courts – where the team works with the family to support and assess for change.
We asked HHJ Hillier how the courts have changed throughout the years and she talked about how changing attitudes have affected the family courts.
Overtime the judges have got younger and more diverse - and many have young families of their own. There is much more work to be done - we should have more black and minority ethnic judges than we do, although in family courts we at least have more women judges.
On a positive note because we've now got a younger judiciary, a more open-minded and modern judiciary, we are thinking more about new ways of working and how we can do things better for families.
When asked about how supportive the city of Leeds was to those affected by drug and alcohol misuse, HHJ Hillier spoke highly of Leeds and the methods it uses to tackle the problem.
I think that Leeds does have a commitment to helping people overcome drug and alcohol addiction, and we've got some good services out there in terms of support services and drug testing. We have experts and professionals who are committed to assisting people, so all in all, Leeds is pretty fab place to be in and to work.
Does that mean that I wouldn't say there’s room for improvement? Well, there's always more that you can do as a judge and there's always more that we could do as a city.
Lastly, we asked HHJ Hillier about what changes she would like to implement and she told us about her hopes to see the FDAC approach become more wide-spread.
I would like the problem-solving methodology to be used more widely and my ultimate goal is that family drug and alcohol court ceases to exist!
I don't want the names drug and alcohol to define the problem-solving approach in the family court. I want FDAC principles and ideas and people to be involved, but my goal is for this approach not to be limited to cases that involve drugs and alcohol misuse. There are so many other family issues, for example domestic abuse and general neglect that could be assisted by a problem-solving approach.
The Barca-Leeds team have got such great skills, and the FDAC District Judges have such excellent skills in problem solving that my aim is to have the same methods, skills and principles applied across a much wider panoply of cases.
