My Marriage My Choice

Project News for March 2017

We are still seeking applications to attend a workshop (on May 15 2017) about forced marriage. It is aimed at practitioners who could contribute to the shaping of policy and practice around assessing capacity to consent to marriage;  we are looking for practitioners who have experience of assessing capacity and who can share ideas about what good practice might look like. View further details and an application form for this workshop, which is being convened by the Ann Craft Trust on behalf of the My Marriage My Choice project.

We have continued to recruit and have conducted interviews and focus groups in Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent, Leeds and London this month. We are very grateful for the time that people have taken to participate. We would still like to hear from people (people with learning disabilities, parent/carers, and particularly faith leaders) who would be willing to participate. We are also currently consulting with social work departments, having obtained approval from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), to run focus groups involving a range of both social work and other professionals involved in adult health and social care. Again we would like to hear from anyone who would like to participate in one of the focus groups.

We are currently developing ideas for the film we will be producing to raise awareness of forced marriage of people with learning disabilities which will be targeted mainly at people with learning disabilities and their parents/carers, though it will also be highly relevant for faith/community leaders and health and social care professionals.

The project-lead Rachael Clawson will also be speaking at the National Institute for Health Research – School for Social Care Research (NIHR-SSSCR) conference on April 12, giving a talk entitled "Forced marriage of people with learning disabilities – themes emerging from an analysis of UK Government Forced Marriage Unit statistics". This will consider a number of themes emerging, from a review of data recorded by the FMU between 2009-2015.

Posted on Thursday 30th March 2017

My Marriage My Choice

University of Nottingham
Law and Social Sciences Building
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD