This exploratory study of Sure Start in its early phase has revealed a strong mother focus in service management and delivery. As in the early phase of US Head Start ‘parent involvement’ has implicitly meant maternal involvement (Levine, 1993). In the original scoring of ‘father involvement’, used in the Implementation survey, only 12 per cent of programmes were categorized as ‘highly involving’ fathers, From interviews with programme managers,
inspection of local programme records and fieldwork observations in this study it is clear that in some areas father involvement was even lower than reported in the Implementation survey. However, we gained the strong impression that this was in large part because programmes were relatively young – towards the end of our study the highly father-involved appeared to be developing systematic and successful ways of engaging whole families and catering to the needs to single fathers. The main factors promoting fathers’ participation in local Sure Start programmes are summarized in Table 10.1
Table 10.1 FACTORS PROMOTING FATHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL SURE START PROGRAMMES
PROGRAMME LEVEL FAMILY LEVEL
Early identification of fathers as a priority
Female partner facilitation
Programme-wide commitment to father involvement
High paternal caring responsibilities
Strategy for involving fathers
Provision of services specifically for dads
Presence of a dedicated staff member for encouraging father involvement
10.2 Policy and Practice Recommendations
A series of policy and practice recommendations about how fathers can be more fully integrated into early intervention, preventative services for young children emerged from the study. These recommendations are summarized below.
? Increasing the numbers and visibility of male workers at all levels to make the Sure Start environment more male friendly. Lack of male presence was identified as a key barrier to father involvement.
? A broadening of programmes’ ‘office hours’ opening times to include evenings and weekends where possible.
? Developing outreach strategies to engage fathers pre-natally and at the birth of their children in the hospital environment. Neonatal scanning and childbirth can be effective times at which to enlist fathers.
? ‘Hooking’ fathers at key transitional periods in the day (for example, where dropping off partner or collecting children from childcare). Such times may provide good opportunities to raise awareness among fathers of the range of services offered by Sure Start.
? Using outdoor and fun activities (for example, Fundays, community events) as ways of encouraging fathers to engage with Sure Start.
? Increasing the provision of ‘father-focused’ services. Consulting with fathers to inform service-delivery and building on men’s interests (e.g., carpentry, sports or ‘fathering’).
? Using techniques which celebrate becoming and being a father (in all its diversity) using peer support, videos and role models.
? Increasing knowledge of Sure Start among fathers. Key to this may be utilizing female partners as potentially important, initial sources of fathers’ information about Sure Start.
? Encouraging programme partnerships to focus early on involving fathers where father involvement is deemed desirable.
? Training and guidance for programme staff on strategies/approaches for encouraging father involvement.
? Using mothers’ encouragement and support to increase fathers’ involvement in mixed gender activities. Working with parents together to emphasise the collaborative nature of parenting.
? Identifying areas where encouragement of father support could stimulate their interest in further involvement in Sure Start activities – at the ante-natal and breast-feeding stage, for example.
? Use of mixed gender practitioner group leaders to model collaborative working between men and women.
? Working on increasing men’s confidence in core care-giving tasks with infants.
? Developing sensitivity to the needs of different groups within the
community of fathers: lone fathers, sole carers, estranged or separated fathers, disabled fathers, fathers working shifts, fathers from minority ethnic and faith groups. Fathers with differing experiences and different
? Collection of quantitative information on father attendance at Sure Start activities to provide a baseline and to monitor progress.
? Undertaking local evaluations on the impact of father involvement in Sure Start on child, maternal and paternal well-being.
As the proliferation of support groups working with fathers and father figures occurs this will increase the need for knowledge about ‘best practice’ and further resources will be required to support reflection on professional and personal development for practitioners working with fathers. Some of the sampled Sure Start local programmes used existing or developing programmes for fathers (e.g., Fathers Direct, Children North East) and these were very favourably received. However, some areas had little access to father support services of this kind.
Inevitably as father involvement in family support intervention becomes more of an issue or even more commonplace, managers of services will become concerned to examine cost-effectiveness. The sorts of questions that might emerge include: for what types of treatment are fathers most necessary? Can fathers act as proxies for mothers for instance in parent-training programmes? When is the extra effort involved in reaching fathers (staff-time, recruitment strategies) value for money? Generalist remedies will not always be applicable. Future practice innovations for work with fathers will rely on research-minded critical appraisal of current work practices and regular access to new findings from fatherhood and family studies research. In addition, fathers in their consumer roles will also need information on the most appropriate type of advice and support for themselves and their families. It should be borne in mind that these conclusions have been based on an investigation that took place comparatively early in the life of Sure Start. More current data about services for fathers will be available later in 2003, when the national survey has been applied to rounds 3 and 4 of local programmes, and when the rounds 1 and 2 have been surveyed for a second time.