3.1. This chapter describes the research projects and pilots designed to support marriage and prevent marriage breakdown and the role of the Advisory Board in considering this research.
3.2. The White Paper Looking to the Future: Mediation and the Ground for Divorce recognised the difficulties caused by the adversarial system of divorce embodied in the current law, which often made it hard for couples to become reconciled. It acknowledged that difficulties within a marriage might be resolved if couples had more to do with each other in the pre-divorce period. Couples needed to face up to the realities of a life apart, both for themselves and their children. Marriages do not come to an end because of the filing of a divorce petition: petitions are often the response to a marital crisis rather than a sign of irretrievable breakdown.
3.3. As a result, the Family Law Act 1996 requires the courts and other persons exercising functions under the Act to have regard to the general principles that the institution of marriage is to be supported and that the parties to a marriage which may have broken down are to be encouraged to take all practicable steps, whether by marriage counselling or otherwise, to save the marriage (endnote 1). In support of this, the Act gives the Lord Chancellor powers to make grants in connection with research into the causes of marital breakdown, research into ways of preventing marital breakdown, and the provision of support by way of marriage support services (endnote 2). The Act requires the Lord Chancellor to take account of the fact that support services are most likely to be needed early on, to prevent marriage problems developing to the extent that the parties are at a stage where they are ready to dissolve the marriage.
3.4. The Lord Chancellor's Department currently contributes to the core funding of six national marriage support and research organisations (RELATE; One plus One; the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute; the Jewish Marriage Council; Marriage Care; and the Family Welfare Association). The money is given to the central bodies of the organisations to support the development of training and support to local services. In the smaller organisations the funding also helps provide some services directly.
3.5. In November 1996, The Lord Chancellor invited marriage support organisations to bid for funds for a pilot programme which would run for one year from 1 April 1997. The aims of the programme were to identify the types of service(s) which would support marriage most effectively, increase public awareness about marriage support services and improve access to existing services.
3.6. A total of 13 projects from 9 different marriage support organisations across England & Wales were selected, receiving a total of £0.5m. The choice was based on the need to achieve a representative balance of geographical spread, urban and rural locations, income levels and ethnic diversity. The projects were varied in their nature, including telephone helplines, ‘drop-in centres', counselling services, and marriage preparation.
3.7. The Advisory Board has seen copies of the interim report from each project and individual members provided advice to the Department on whether funding should be continued. The members' advice helped inform the decision of the Lord Chancellor's Department's Parliamentary Secretary as to which projects should receive further funding.
3.8. It was decided that four projects would receive funding for a further year:
the Family Welfare Association's marriage support service for the Muslim community in Peterborough;
the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute's service of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for couples referred by GPs;
the Lighthouse Marriage Support Unit in Coventry; and
the African Caribbean Marriage Support Service in Brixton.
3.9. In addition, One plus One's project (using health visitors to screen for relationship problems in the period following a birth) will be funded to its completion in May 1998. Relate's telephone counselling service (Relate-Line) will be funded for a further four months, and Marriage Care's telephone helpline for up to 6 months, to enable the scheme to be fully evaluated.
3.10. In the light of the experience of the pilot programme, the Lord Chancellor has decided to set up an external, independent review of the Lord Chancellor's Department's funding of marriage support and research services, to report before the end of 1998. The Board welcomes this review and looks forward to providing advice and assistance to it.
3.11. The Advisory Board has commented on two marriage research projects which are being funded by the Lord Chancellor's Department.
3.12. The first is being undertaken by One plus One, a London based research charity. It involves the preparation of a series of review papers to assist the development of policy in support of marriage. These papers present evidence from the UK and abroad on the causes of marital breakdown and the effectiveness of policies and services intended to reduce its incidence. They encompass research findings, census and survey data on trends and patterns of behaviour, analytical accounts of professional experience and descriptive accounts of the effects of changes in legislation or other influences on the quality and stability of relationships. As well as informing policy, the work will also set the agenda for future research priorities.
3.13. The different review papers discuss socio-demographic characteristics, the effect of changes in peoples material circumstances on divorce rates, the effect of changes in peoples attitudes to marriage, theories of marriage distress, the effectiveness of marriage preparation, the impact of relationship counselling and a paper summarising the effect of all of these on policy formulation. The papers are to be presented to the Advisory Board on the conclusion of the project.
3.14. A second research project on marriage which has been commissioned by the Lord Chancellor's Department is being undertaken by Professor Jane Lewis of All Souls College, Oxford. This project examines the effect of individualism on commitment to marriage, whether family law has contributed to the rise of individualistic behaviour and what the role of the law should be. The Board discussed an interim report at their March meeting and the final report is due for completion in 1999.
| 1 | Family Law Act 1996, s. 1. |
| 2 | s. 22. |