The first same sex wedding looks set to take place in England and Wales a few months earlier than originally estimated, the government has announced.
According to Women and Equalities Minister Maria Miller, ceremonies could take place as soon as Saturday 29th March 2014, subject to Parliament’s approval of various statutory instruments, to be laid in the new year.
Further details of the recently announced timetable include:
Women’s Aid, the national domestic violence charity in England, has warned that unless cuts to specialist gender-specific services end soon, an entire network of domestic violence providers in England is likely to collapse.
The warning comes as recent figures reveal that around 155 women and more than 100 children were turned away from refuges in one day in 2013.
Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid said:
Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP has called on the Government to legislate so children raised by their older brothers or sisters get the recognition and help they need.
In Britain it is estimated there are over 45,000 siblings raising their younger brothers and sisters. In some cases this is as a result of parental death, or because of parental imprisonment, mental illness, drug and alcohol misuse or domestic violence – or a combination of these factors.
Many young people are forced to give up work in order to take on the care of their vulnerable younger brothers and sisters. Despite the needs of these children, most are living in severe poverty and do not have a right to practical support, such as bereavement counselling.
A recent study from America has looked at the experiences of couples during retirement and how well prepared they are to handle issues that might arise during this stage of their lives.
The study, which was conducted by Merrill Lynch, found that the vast majority of people age 50+ have not prepared for potential family events and challenges that could affect their retirement.
One event that could take couples by surprise is the issue of boomerang children. The study found one in five parents (19%t) age 50+ have at least one “boomerang” adult child who has moved back in with them.
The Care Inspectorate has recently published its first report on adoption services in Scotland.
There are 39 services currently in operation in Scotland and the report found that the majority were performing well and had received good grades during their inspections.
The Care Inspectorate has the power to investigate complaints against all care services, including anonymous complaints if necessary. There have been no upheld complaints in the last three years in relation to adoption services. The last upheld complaint against an adoption service was in April 2010.
The Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee has published its Stage 1 report into the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill.
The Bill was introduced in the Parliament in June of this year and covers the following key matters relating to marriage law:
- the introduction of same-sex marriage,
The Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, Brendan McGuigan, has raised concerns over the lack of progress made in how criminal justice agencies handle incidents of domestic violence and abuse.
He believes that strategic focus is required at both senior and District level within the police service to move things forward.
Reflecting on the 10% increase in the number of domestic abuse cases being recorded by police since 2009-10, Mr McGuigan said it was encouraging that more people were coming forward and reporting instances of domestic violence and abuse.
A recent report from Australia has provided an in-depth look at the changing dynamics of Australian families.
The AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report Modern Family reveals that 78% of people apparently now cohabit before marriage, which is an increase of 72% compared to ten years ago. The past decade has also seen a drop in the nation’s annual marriage rate from 6.6 marriages per 1,000 people to 5.5.
AMP Chief Customer Officer Paul Sainsbury said today’s modern family is almost unrecognisable from the Mum, Dad and a couple of children households of recent decades.
Single-parent charity Gingerbread has called on English councils to keep child maintenance out of council tax support calculations, claiming that low-income families will be significantly worse off if this is not done.
According to the charity, there are four main reasons why child maintenance should be left out of council tax support calculations. It argues that including maintenance will:
- Increase the risk of child poverty among single parents – whose children are already twice as likely to live in poverty.
Reported incidents of domestic abuse are likely to continue to rise over the coming years, according to Lily Greenan, the Manager of Scottish Women’s Aid. Her comments come as the latest domestic abuse statistics are published.
The figures show that 60,080 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded by the police in Scotland in 2012-13 – up very slightly on the 59,847 incidents recorded in 2011-12.
“We expect reported incidents of domestic abuse to continue to rise as the awareness of domestic abuse increases, professionals receive more training and as a result, women are encouraged to report the abuse they are experiencing to the police,” said Ms Greenan.
...Researchers have recently published the results of a study that followed the marriages of around 1,600 people over a 20-year period to uncover the effects of marital happiness on physical health.
According to co-author Cody Hollist, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, there is a recognised link between health and the happiness of marriage, but it is not clear whether a happy marriage creates good health, or whether a bad marriage leads to poor health.
“There is no way to tease out what caused what,” he said. “But it is clear that marital quality and health run in tandem.”
Local authorities in the UK should invest in support care schemes as a cost-effective way of supporting families and keeping children out of more expensive full-time care, the Fostering Network has urged.
The charity’s call comes with the publication of new research by Loughborough University showing that support care, including the accompanying support services for families, has a far lower unit cost than the foster care it replaces and aims to avoid longer term.
Support care is short-term preventative foster care aimed at families in crisis with a view to avoiding a child being take into care full time and long term. Support carers look after the child on a part-time basis, for example one night a week or one weekend a month, for a time limited period. At the same time a package of other support services is offered to the family, giving them space, guidance and help to work through their problems.
A recent study from Ohio State University has found that the ‘typical American family’ is a thing of the past.
Researchers found that the first decade of this century has seen dramatic changes to family structure in America, with people waiting longer to get married, many choosing to remain single, and a rise in divorce and remarriage rates.
Researchers were particularly troubled by how families are taking increasingly divergent paths.
The minister responsible for child maintenance has hailed the progress that has been made in separated parents accepting financial responsibility for their children. At a key summit on children and young people he said Britain has in recent years “turned an important corner.”
According to Steve Webb, more than four in five separated parents are now paying towards their children through the Child Support Agency (CSA). That’s up from around two in three parents paying towards their children five years ago. He said that the reforms to the child maintenance system are essential to get more parents working together.
The government has embarked on the biggest reform to the child support system in a generation, with a new focus on parental collaboration rather than reliance on the state for assistance.
The American Census Bureau has recently published a report that reveals a sharp increase in the number of children born to unmarried mothers. The report shows that in 2011, around 36% of babies were born to single mothers.
Susan Stewart, a sociologist at Iowa State University, suggests that this spike may be linked to the impact of the recent economic downturn.
“The recession has screwed up everything in terms of marriage and family patterns,” Stewart said. “Birth rates were down, marriage rates were down and divorce rates were down because of the recession.”
More than £300 million in maintenance was collected for children from April to June this year, vital support which single parent charity Gingerbread warns is at risk as the Child Support Agency (CSA) prepares for closure.
Existing cases with the CSA will be closed and parents will have to reapply to the new Child Maintenance Service (CMS), once case closure begins next year. Trials of the new scheme have already begun.
To reopen their case, parents will have to pay £20 up front and may face ongoing collection charges if the paying parent fails to pay and the CMS is required to step in.
Shared parenting, with an equal standing of both parents, has been proved to be in the best interests of children, because they can stay in a meaningful relationship with both their mother and their father after separation or divorce, according to the International Platform on Shared Parenting.
The Platform recently held its first workshop where it discussed the best of evidence-based research and modern best practices on shared parenting.
Angela Hoffmeyer, initiator of the international cooperation, explained: “Across Western societies there is increased enthusiasm for shared parenting. Our aim is to raise awareness of the benefits of this living arrangement for children and to overcome reservations still prevailing in the legal system.”
The job environment in America has changed dramatically over recent years, and it can be very hard for workers without a college degree to find a stable full-time job with good benefits. This lack of stability and security has had an impact on family structure amongst working-class Americans, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Virginia and Harvard University found that working-class Americans are now less likely to get married or have children within marriage than people with college degrees, and those that do get married are more likely to end up separated or divorced.
“Working-class people with insecure work and few resources, little stability and no ability to plan for a foreseeable future become concerned with their own survival and often become unable to imagine being able to provide materially and emotionally for others,” said Sarah Corse, an associate professor of sociology in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences and the study’s lead author. “Insecure work changes peoples’ non-work lives.”
Recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics have revealed that although the overall divorce rate in England and Wales has been falling since the mid-1990s, there has been a steady increase in the number of over-60s who are choosing to get divorced.
Responding to these figures, relationship support charity Relate’s Chief Executive, Ruth Sutherland, said, “It is clear from today’s statistics that there are many pressures facing couples as they grow older. Relationships are often missing in the current debate on our ageing society but 83% of people we surveyed aged over 50 told us that strong personal relationships were the most important factor to a happy later life. This data shows once again that this is a very real issue for many older people.
“Relate is continuing to call for a Minister of State for Ageing Society and for people to think about the importance of relationships at all stages of life. This would help to drive a consistent strategy in central and local government, putting healthy relationships at the heart of a achieving a good quality life as we get older, alongside health and financial security.”
...Recent statistics released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency have given a breakdown of the number of marriages, divorces and civil partnerships that occurred in 2012.
The figures show that the marriage rate in Northern Ireland in 2012 increased to 5.9 persons marrying per 1,000 population aged 16 and over, from 5.8 in 2011. However, this still remains much lower than the rate seen 30 years ago of 9.0 persons per 1,000 population aged 16 and over in 1982.
The male marriage rate remained at 12.1 men marrying per 1,000 men aged 16 and over in 2012, while, the female marriage rate rose from 11.3 women marrying per 1,000 women aged 16 and over in 2011, to 11.4 in 2012. However, male and female marriage rates remain lower than those of 30 years ago (18.6 men and 17.3 women in 1982), indicating that many men and women may be choosing to cohabit rather than marry. In fact, around half (52%) of couples who married in 2012 reported living at the same address before marriage.