Fatherhood Institute
Fathers Direct has recently changed its name to Fatherhood Institute. Duncan Fisher, Fatherhood Institute’s CEO, explains the change and tells Europarent visitors about the Institute’s plans for the future.
Why change the name?
First, we are an organisation concerned with fatherhood and how it impacts on the wellbeing of children, mothers and fathers themselves. We do not support individual fathers or father’s rights and wanted to minimise that confusion in our name: hence Fatherhood.
Secondly, we have always known that fathers – and the relationship fathers have with their partners – have profound and wide-ranging impacts on children and on the mother-child relationship. However, we recently undertook a major review of international research in order to understand those impacts fully. The conclusions of this review now inform everything we say and do. We have evolved into an organisation working on the basis of research evidence. We now feel that the word Institute best describes us.
What were the conclusions of the research review?
Our major review of international research looked at two areas:
- research into the influence of fathers – whether positive or negative - on children’s welfare and development
- research into the efficacy of engagement with fathers by services (e.g. community services, schools, prisons, etc) and how it can change fathers’ behaviours in ways known to benefit children.
This work led us to two key conclusions:
- the difference between poor fathering and good fathering has a greater impact – positive or negative - on children brought up in disadvantaged circumstances
- only services designed for the purpose of engaging fathers make a noticeable difference to their behaviour and hence change outcomes for the child.
These conclusions have informed and strengthened the Fatherhood Institute’s belief that engagement by services with families needs to change. The starting point for service interventions in the family has to be the child. Services then need to respond to the key influences on the child’s well-being, particularly poor influences, whether these arise from the father, mother or another source.
Recently we were pleased that the Department for Children adopted an important principle in response to our work: engagement with fathers should be in relation to their influence on the child, not on the extent to which they spend time directly caring for the child.
The full research review is presented in a substantial document, The costs and benefits of active fatherhood on our website.
What will the Fatherhood Institute do?
We will continue to monitor research published internationally in the broad field of fatherhood and make a cogent analysis of this publicly available.
On the basis of these research findings, we will make a major contribution in three areas:
- The public debate about children and parents
- The making of policy by government and opposition parties
- The development of local children’s services
From the so called “daddy wars” of recent media hype, to separated families and teenagers with no male role model, the public debate on fatherhood is undermined by commentators driving a wearyingly backward looking agenda from polarized positions. The Fatherhood Institute aims to fill the void, with intelligent, reasoned, forward looking perspectives on the future family based on research.
The Fatherhood Institute has a unique perspective on family policy, based on international research data and first hand experience. We will seek to work with all political parties and all levels of government to inform new strategies for the future of the family and ensure that policy changes are enacted in the interests of children, their mothers and fathers.
Building on 10 years’ experience, the Fatherhood Institute will continue to work with all service settings that have a concern for children and the family. Our exciting new initiative, due to launch in spring 2008, is Hit the Ground Calling: a peer learning programme which helps young dads to develop their parenting skills and provides a forum for them to explore and understand their new role. We will also continue to run our popular Leadership Roundtables and provide training and consultancy across a range of fatherhood related issues.
We remain a registered charity (reg. no. 1075104). We remain politically non-aligned, with a variety of political opinion internally and active engagement with all the main political parties.
We plan to continue to make cooperativeness and partnership work our hallmarks.
How can I contact the Fatherhood Institute?
You can find and contact us:
- using the new website address www.fatherhoodinstitute.org (although our old address will remain operative for some time)
- via our existing main office telephone number - 44 (0)845 634 1328 (that hasn’t changed) and via our staff telephone numbers as listed on our website
- via email, with the suffix ‘@fatherhoodinstitute.org’ substituted for the old with ‘@fathersdirect.com’
With best wishes
Duncan Fisher
CEO
The Fatherhood Institute (formerly Fathers Direct)
Mobile : 44 (0)7950 028 704
Office: 44 (0)845 634 1328
Website: www.fatherhoodinstitute.org
Fathers Direct is proud to announce its re-launch as the Fatherhood Institute. We remain a registered charity (reg. no. 1075104) and continue to:
collate and publish international research on fathers, fatherhood and different approaches to engaging with fathers by public services and employers
- help shape national and local policies to ensure a father-inclusive approach to family policy
- inject research evidence on fathers and fatherhood into national debates about parenting and parental roles
- lobby for changes in law, policy and practice to dismantle barriers to fathers’ care of infants and children
- remain the UK’s leading provider of training, consultancy and publications on father-inclusive practice, for public and third sector agencies and employers.
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