Engaging Fathers:
Policy and Practice Issues
Plan
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New Labour’s social policies
Fathers – an overview of the policy issues
The role of services
Lessons emerging from research into
practice
Social policies
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Responding to new social risks –
globalisation, family change, fertility patterns
A ‘new’ paradigm – the social investment
state (or LEGO?)
The social investment state
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Knowledge economy
Re-defining welfare – integration into the
market rather than protection from it (have
recent economic events modified this?)
Future oriented – investing in children
The knowledge economy
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‘We are all in the thin air business. Our children will
not have to toil in dark factories, descend into pits or
suffocate in mills, to hew raw materials and turn
them into manufacturing products. They will make
their livings through their creativity, ingenuity and
imagination’
Work is becoming more knowledge based and that
needs to happen to cope with the challenges posed
by globalisation
Fact of fiction? The growth of hairdressing!!!!!
Integration into the market
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Post-war welfare state and extension of
social rights for male waged workers
However, a new paradigm has emerged
across the EU …….
Conditionality – no rights without
responsibilities
The impact of the economic crisis? ‘Markets
need morals’ (Gordon Brown in The
Observer, Nov, 9th, 2008) But !!!!
Investing in children
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Sure Start and Children’s Centres
Expansion of Early Years
Role of schools and extended schools
Every Child Matters………
Fathers and Family policy
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Key elements: WFB, uncoupling of
parenthood and marriage, state intervention
much more extensive and all-encompassing
All of these have particular and complex
implications for fathers, fathering and
fatherhood
WFB policies
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Key changes – flexible working, child care,
new care leaves
What are the drivers?
Key point is that it’s not gender equalityindeed policies may reinforce childcare as the
primary responsibility of mothers
Parenthood is for life
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Child support
Contact
Mandatory birth registration
Birth fathers rule?
From a position in which marriage had been
the primary mechanism for grounding fathers’
rights, fathers are now seen to have a more
direct unmediated relationship with their
children (Collier and Sheldon, 2008)
Responsible parents
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Host of developments…. Parenting
programmes, Every Parent Matters agenda,
parenting advisors
Role of social policies and the role of law
The role of services
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Unprecedented naming of parents as
mothers and fathers in a range of documents
The influence of the Fatherhood Institute
Gender Equality Duty
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The new duty to promote gender equality came into
force in April, 2007. The duty affects police, local
government, the NHS etc. It also affects private
organisations fulfilling public functions.
Under previous laws, action could only be taken
against public bodies after they discriminated on
grounds of sex. Now they must take steps to
proactively promote equality between men and
women- must take account of their differing needs
when making policies and providing services and
not just react to complaints when things go wrong.
Every Parent Matters
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‘Fathers matter to children’s development.
Father-child relationships- be they positive,
negative or lacking- have profound and wide
ranging impacts on children that last a
lifetime, particularly for children from the most
disadvantaged backgrounds. Research
shows that where fathers have early
involvement in a child’s life:
Continued…
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There is a positive relationship to later
educational achievement;
There is an association with good parentchild relationship in adolescence; and
Children in separated families are more
protected from mental health problems’
(p, 6).
Barriers to fathers’ involvement (Every
Parent Matters)
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‘Insensitive’ services
Overtly female focus and culture – lack of
confidence in explaining to female service
users why it is important to engage with
fathers
Under estimation of the significance of a
father’s involvement if he is not visible to the
service, or not living with the child
Every Parent Matters continued …..
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‘Irrespective of the degree of involvement
they have in the care of their children, fathers
should be offered routinely the support and
opportunities they need to play their parental
role effectively’ (p, 10)
The Children’s Plan
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‘standards and training will reflect the need
for public services to engage with both
fathers and mothers except where there is a
clear risk to the child to do so’ (P, 23)
Focus in Children’s plan is on birth fathers
including those who are non-resident
Supporting contact
What are the problems with government
constructions?
Some ‘lessons’ from research
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Gender of the worker is not important
But it is important to encourage ‘gender talk’ when changing
services
The anxieties and desires of workers – where is the space???
Context in which service is being delivered is important
Fathers, masculinity and help-seeking- seeing fathers as
‘experts’- difficulties with compulsion
Recognising mothers as gatekeepers for fathers’ involvement
What kind of activities?
Opening hours of services
Community work approach is often appropriate
‘Fathers Matter’ research
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Rounds 1 and 2
Complexity of the families
Domestic violence and substance misuse issues
Lack of recording about fathers
Fathers and ‘rights’ talk
Mothers wanted services for fathers
Lack of training and support for workers
Lack of interest or suspicion about the issue –
influence of fathers’ rights movement
References
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Ashley, C, et al ( 2006) Fathers Matter,
www.frg.org.uk
Roskill, C et al (2008) Fathers Matter 11,
www.frg.org.uk
Featherstone, B., Rivett, M. and Scourfield, J
(2007) Working with men in health and social
care, Sage
Some references
R. Collier and S. Sheldon (2008)
Fragmenting Fatherhood: A Socio-legal
study, Hart Publishing
 Dermott, E (2008) Intimate Fatherhood,
Routledge
 Featherstone, B (forthcoming) Contemporary
Fathering: Theory, Policy and Practice, Policy
Press
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender,
State and Society (Oxford University Press)
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