Fathers matter project

Round 1 - Background

In 2004 Family Rights Group submitted a successful 2 year bid to the Parenting Fund, in conjunction with Children Law UK, Fathers Direct, Grandparents Association, and a local Hackney youth organisation SKY Partnership. The proposal was to develop a project that aimed to identify barriers to the inclusion of fathers and paternal relatives of children within the child welfare system, and to start examining what works and why.

What prompted Family Rights Group to draw together such a bid was the increasing number of calls its advice service was receiving from non-resident fathers and paternal relatives, some of whom had only heard late in the day that their child had been taken into care. Some had confronted inconsistencies in policies and practices across the country and even within the same authority. As well as being overlooked by social care services, there appeared to be a lack of suitable support services and information materials for these fathers. Family Rights Group found that partner organisations were also witnessing a similar trend: of the 3,000 calls that the Grandparents Association received, 70% were from paternal relatives.

It was not only family members who lacked support, there also appeared to be a lack of practical help and advice to inform the work that practitioners in the voluntary and statutory sectors undertake with fathers. This is in a context in which there is no published research study in the UK that exclusively examines the role and involvement of fathers in the child protection process.

Fathers Matter Round 1 aims and how the steering group went about achieving these objectives?

The project's aims were to:

• explore the barriers encountered by fathers and paternal relatives whose children are involved with Social Services;
• identify effective ways of working with fathers and paternal relatives; and
• recommend steps that could be taken by the judiciary, the courts, national government, and statutory and voluntary agencies.

At the outset of the two-year project, a steering group was set up.

The project's work programme included:

• A detailed analysis of calls from fathers to Family Rights Group's advice line
• An international literature review
• Focus groups and interviews with social care service users including fathers, mothers and wider family members
• A survey of local authority children services

The findings were presented at a conference held in June 2006 that considered how to take forward the project's recommendations.

We have subsequently published a report the draws together the project's research studies and findings entitled Fathers Matter - Research findings on fathers and their involvement with social care services (Family Rights Group).

Fathers Matter Round 2

In 2006 Family Rights Group with its partners successfully applied to the Parenting Fund to take forwards the findings from Fathers Matters Round 1.

The work has included:

• Developing a training course for social care workers and managers, in conjunction with Fathers Direct, entitled ‘addressing child welfare concerns - working with fathers'. 
• Supporting fathers to become joint trainers on this and other social care education courses;
• Developing practitioner information networks, via newsletters and the web;
• Working with two children's services authorities to develop ‘best practice' models on working with fathers that could be replicated nation-wide;
• Surveying and working with local higher education institutions to improve the teaching of social work students on engaging fathers and on involving fathers in course design and delivery; and
• Providing legal advice and support to fathers and paternal relatives via our national free advice service and the Fathers Matter electronic discussion board on our website (www.frg.org.uk).

The survey of social work courses was led by Professor Brid Featherstone. 

Please note: There are now two research publications based upon the findings of the 2 Fathers Matter projects:

The NEW report published in May 2008 is: Clare Roskill, Brid Featherstone, Cathy Ashley and Sean Haresnape (2008) Fathers Matter 2 - Further research findings on fathers and their involvement with social care servicse (Family Rights Group) (£14.99 plus 15% P&P). To order the publication, email yasmin@frg.org.uk.

Plus  there's the report that sets out the findings from the first Fathers Matter project published in 2006: Cathy Ashley, Brid Featherstone, Clare Roskill, Mary Ryan and Sue White (2006) Fathers Matter: Research findings on fathers and their involvement with social care services (Family Rights Group) (£14.99 plus 15% P&P). To order the publication please download an order form.

If you are interested in finding out more about the project, please contact Sean Haresnape, FRG Policy Adviser - sharesnape@frg.org.uk