Promoting sexualities; protecting from abuse: how shifting attitudes and policies have shaped the Ann Craft Trust
Rachel Fyson
School of Sociology & Social Policy
University of Nottingham
Abstract
This paper will explore recent changes in attitudes towards, and understandings of, the sexuality of people with learning disabilities through an exploration of both the changing work of the Ann Craft Trust and contemporaneous changes in UK law and policy.
The Ann Craft Trust was originally established as NAPSAC (the National Association for the Protection from Sexual Abuse of Adults and Children with Learning Disabilities). The organisation grew out of the pioneering work of the late Ann Craft, who was one of the first people in the UK to research and write about the sexual rights of people with learning disabilities. The initial work of NAPSAC, in the early 1990s, demonstrated a commitment to both enabling people with learning disabilities to explore and express their sexuality and the protection of people with learning disabilities from sexual abuse. During the latter part of the 1990s and the early 2000s, however, the focus of the Ann Craft Trust shifted increasingly towards abuse prevention – a change in emphasis which echoed a growing awareness amongst professionals and policy makers about the needs of 'vulnerable adults'. Most recently, the organisation – although maintaining its work within abuse prevention - has also begun to again be more actively involved in other areas. This has included working with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that, where necessary, people with learning disabilities can defend their rights through court processes. Coming full circle, the Ann Craft Trust has also recently returned to its roots in promoting the rights of people with learning disabilities – this time, the focus has been not on sexual rights per se but on the next stage: the rights of people with learning disabilities to become parents.
These changes in the activities of one small charity will be compared and contrasted with the changes in law and policy relating to people with learning disabilities which have taken place during the same period. In particular, the opposing pressures for, on the one hand, greater choice and independence in the lives of people with learning disabilities and, on the other, an increasing awareness of the need to protect vulnerable adults from abuse of all kinds, will also be explored.