Fathers

BabyFather Initiative

Barnardo's

The Baby Fatherhood Initiative offers following training for practitioners:

The Fatherhood Training Programme, designed to increase the understanding and confidence of professionals who work with children, young people, families, men, fathers and male carers. This course provides practical skills while looking at social policy, legislation and the theory of fatherhood in the community.

The African Caribbean Fatherhood Training Programme, with a special emphasis on increasing the understanding and confidence of professionals who work with African Caribbean and BME fathers, children, young people and families. This course provides practical skills and awareness around the theory of fatherhood.

A bespoke consultative service to assist practitioners, organisations and groups to develop effective policies and practices around the engagement of men, fathers, and male carers in service development delivery and provision.

Hit the Ground Crawling

Hit the Ground Crawling is the UK version of a groundbreaking American ante-natal peer support programme for dads-to-be - and the Fatherhood Institute now offers training for Children’s Centres and other children’s services across the UK on how to run it.

It involves groups of expectant fathers learning childcare skills from new dads and their babies. Specially trained Children’s Centre staff, health visitors, midwives etc facilitate the sessions, which are very informal and are designed to provide space for the dads-to-be to discuss their thoughts and concerns with other dads in a relaxed setting; to watch their peers caring for their babies; and to have a go at changing nappies, cuddling, massaging, etc.

The programme produces more confident, less-isolated dads and is a great opportunity to ensure local fathers become familiar and comfortable with the full range of local services.

Supporting Fathers’ Groups in Early Years

Children in Wales

Date: 23 Sep 2010

Location: Llandudno  

A two-day course facilitated by Fatherskills, building on the theory developed in An Introduction to Working with Fathers. The course is aimed at organisations and practitioners working in Early Years settings. It provides a toolkit to help create and sustain a 12-week programme for a father’s group. The course is based on interactive learning and how to translate this into working with fathers.

Supporting Young Fathers - Spotlight on Promising Practice

Young People in Focus

Date: 3 November 2010

Location: Birmingham

The value of fathers to children’s wellbeing is increasingly documented, but around 40% of young fathers have little or no contact with their children after one year. Support services have tended to focus exclusively on mothers, but in recent years young fathers have been coming out of the shadows. This workshop will feature input from two leading projects in this field with plenty of opportunity to share ideas, consider what works and what to avoid, and to problem-solve.

The Fatherhood Institute

The Fatherhood Institute offers a comprehensive range of courses aimed at service managers and frontline workers from a variety of settings, including Children’s Centres, maternity services, child protection, schools and family learning services, Connexions, child and adolescent mental health services, teenage pregnancy services and youth offending teams.

Courses are delivered by experienced Fatherhood Institute trainers and include a mixture of taught sessions, small group ‘workshop’ exercises and large group discussion. They show you how to develop and implement a whole-team approach to engaging with fathers.

The format for each course reflects the national policy agenda and the Fatherhood Institute's knowledge of ‘what works’, but courses can also be tailored to your specific requirements.

The courses most commonly commissioned are: Working with Fathers in Early Years and Children’s Centres; Working with Young Fathers; Working with Diverse Fathers; Delivering Father-Inclusive Parenting Services and Hit the Ground Crawling.

Working with Fathers

The Children North East Regional Resource Centre for Fatherhood offers a range of training programmes for practitioners and service users. Their training is based on their experience of working with fathers since 1997 across a range of settings including health, early years and education. Training programmes include: Developing Men Friendly Organisations; Lets Think About Father Figures; Involving Men into Childcare; Introduction to Working with Young Fathers. In addition to the programmes listed above, trainers and father workers can work with your organisation to develop programmes to fit your specific needs. For more information email.

Working with Men

Offers training for those developing and those managing work with boys, men and fathers. The training is also relevant to those involved in policy development.

Recent training days and workshops have included the following areas: targeting and engaging boys and young men; masculinity; what works with fathers; fathers’ involvement in Children’s Centres and self esteem.

They have standard one-day and two-day courses which can be adapted, and  they can develop tailored programmes, depending on the needs and requirements of the agencies and professionals involved.

Working with Men also developed the Expectant Fathers Programme and has a range of resources for practitioners to download on their Young Fathers website.