Fatherhood Institute

The Fatherhood Institute is a UK national fatherhood think tank. It a charity (reg. no. 1075104) is part funded by its own income and part government-sponsored [1] founded in 1999 as Fathers Direct [2] by professionals with expertise in social work, family policy, business development and communications.

David Bartlett, a founder of Fathers Direct, also founded the Gender and Child Welfare Network.

See also

• Fathers' rights movement in the UK
• Parenting

   * 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
   * are the UK’s leading provider of training, consultancy and publications on father-inclusive practice, for 
      public and third sector agencies and employers.

The aim of the charity is to foster 'a society that gives all children a strong and positive relationship with their father and any father-figures; supports both mothers and fathers as earners and carers; and prepares boys and girls for a future shared role in caring for children.

We examine fathers’ impact on children and mothers, and have collated a powerful evidence base on why it is so important for fathers to be involved in their children’s lives from the very beginning - and the barriers they often face in being involved. We also provide research- and practice- based answers as to how barriers to fathers’ involvement may be overcome. Our publications, training and consultancy are bought and delivered all over the world; and we are currently assessing the outcomes of our work via a number of high quality evaluations/feasibility studies. Areas of work include:

● Fathers in maternity services ● Fathers and paternity/parental leave ● Couples during the transition to parenthood ● Fathers and flexible working ● Father’s influence on children’s educational attainment ● Fathers in early years services ● Fathers in communities ● Fathers and mothers as collaborative parents ● Muslim fathers ● Working with fathers in drugs and alcohol services ● Gender imbalance in the children’s workforce ● Gender equality in employment; the gender pay gap ● Safeguarding (child protection) ● Teenage and young fathers ● Separated fathers (staying connected)

We have 10,000 people subscribing to our emails and newsletters on how to increase the involvement of fathers in caring for their children and sharing parenting with mothers. We also provide guidance to fathers: e.g. around 700,000 new fathers in the UK currently receive our booklet ‘Guide for New Dads’. We have developed several methodologies for helping fathers to network together and learn from each other; and to enable professionals to engage with fathers routinely, in all their interactions with families. We are increasingly working in the private sector currently delivering seminars for new fathers and fathers concerned about their children’s educational achievement; and working with separated fathers through the very well evaluated STAYING CONNECTED programme which we have imported from Australia and adapted for the UK context. We are currently also importing and adapting a very well evaluated perinatal programme for expectant and new parents, Family Foundations, which focuses strongly on couple-communication skills and cooperative parenting. We continue to deliver to expectant fathers another US programme we imported and adapted: Hit the Ground Crawling (adapted from the U.S. Boot Camp for New Dads) – a peer-mentoring model).'

External links

• Official website