Engaging with fathers
in our practice
How we engage with fathers and
paternal family and whänau
>
Think about the children and young people you work with. Consider the
following points
> What do you know about their fathers?
> What do you know about the wider paternal family?
> What involvement have fathers had in your work with the family or
whänau?
How the evidence helps us
> Fathers are important to a child’s life
> Better outcomes for children with well engaged
fathers
> Gaining access to paternal whänau and family
Fathers are important to a
child’s life
Father’s knowledge about child development is
associated with positive engagement with their
children. Pleck and Masciadrelli, 2004:248 (cited in Burgess and Bartlett, nd:12)
Women are not natural experts – left in charge of
babies men and women develop skills at the
same rate (Fathers Direct et al, 2000, note 15)
The best predictor of a mother’s ability to cope
with the demands of a new baby is the quality of
her relationship with her partner (Fathers Direct et al, 2000, note
222)
Better outcomes for children
with well engaged fathers
Even quantity of time seems to matters: children who spent
a lot of time with their fathers before age 11 are less likely to
have a criminal record by age 21 (Fathers Direct et al, 2000, note 13)
Children with involved, loving fathers are much more likely to
do well in school; have healthy self-esteem; exhibit empathy
and pro-social behaviour; and avoid high-risk behaviours
such as drug use, truancy, and delinquent activity than
children who have uninvolved fathers (Horn and Sylvester, 2002:15 cited in Martinez et
all 2011:1)
Gaining access to paternal
whänau and family
(fathers) are a resource in a child’s life that a social worker
needs to know about. A father or father figure who is positive
not only has value in his own tight but is a conduit to
another network of support among family and friends that is
often overlooked. (Community Care, 2010)
Examples from our practice
Let’s look at the challenges when engaging with fathers
What helps our engagement with
fathers
>Think about all male figures in a child’s life
>Normalise the inclusion of fathers
>Record details of fathers
>Flexible meeting times
>Look for opportunities to engage with fathers
Fathers can better work with us when we make an ongoing
effort to keep them included.
Fathers as a resource or a risk
> What do we currently do to understand if fathers are a resource and/or a
risk?
> Understanding when fathers are both a risk or a resource
> If we identify them as a risk what happens next?
Understanding fathers’ parenting
capacity
>
Fathers are not always as involved in the day to day parenting of
their children as are mothers.
> What’s our thinking about this?
> Our expectations
> Fathers opportunities to be involved
> How do we understand a child’s father’s parenting capacity?
> what are we looking for?
> What information do we need?
> What about father’s pro-social role-modelling?
>
Primary and secondary caregivers
Practice Example
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Let’s look at a case example.
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In your groups, develop a social work plan for how you would involve the fathers
and both the paternal families
> Include details of how you will
> build engagement
> maintain contact with him so he’s included
> get to know and include his family in decisions and plans
What fathers tell us
“I would have gone to antenatal classes if it wasn’t in a group
setting. I went to the GP and Plunket. I‘m not interested in the
group experience”
“Being an effective father is about being supportive with your kids,
being positive – not so much critical, but guiding. Then there’s the
obvious things like food and shelter and all that…and ensuring they
grow up with good self esteem”
“Whakapapa’s a big thing for Mäori. It identifies you to your whole
tribe… It’s good know where your roots are”
Conclusions and taking this forward
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What does this mean in practice?
>
What will the child or young person notice when we engage with their
fathers?
>
What is the outcome we are seeking from engaging with fathers?
>
What do we know about agencies who work with fathers?
>
What agencies can we draw on in our area?
Useful reading
Dominelli, L., Strega, S., Walmsley, C., Callahan, M., and Brown, L. (2011)
‘Here’s my story’: fathers of ‘looked after’ children recount their experiences in
the Canadian Child Welfare System. British Journal of Social Work (2011) 41,
351-367
Turnell, A and Essex, S (2006) Working with ‘denied’ child abuse: the
resolutions approach. Maidenhead: Open University Press
Scourfield, J (2006) The Challenge of engaging fathers in the child protection
process. Critical Social Policy 2006 26:440
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