Working with Fathers
There has been increasing awareness of the importance of engaging with fathers and significant male others through recent research projects and publications. Research has highlighted that men are too frequently overlooked and are poorly engaged by universal and specialist services, such as midwives or health visitors. This then appears to set a pattern that is evident through targeted and specialist services, including care proceedings.
The opportunity for support and for early identification of both parental and children’s vulnerabilities and real or potential risks are therefore not maximised. Too often men are either seen as ‘good’ and therefore to be actively engaged and entrusted with the care of their children, or they are deemed to be ‘bad’, to be kept at arms-length and, if possible, excluded from the family’s life because of the safeguarding risks they present or marginalised because of work or other commitments so kept at a distance. This sometimes results in children being removed if their mother is unable or unwilling to see the danger that a man may present to children.
The DadPad was created because babies don’t come with a set of instructions, and dads told us they wanted important information on what to expect and how to care for their baby. We listened to what dads, their partners and professionals asked for and combined it all in this new DadPad for dads-to-be.
