Most social workers don’t feel adequately prepared to engage with fathers, a Community Care poll has found.
In a recent interview with Community Care, Brid Featherstone, who has a long research career in child protection and domestic abuse, noted that practitioners’ reluctance to engage with fathers often resulted in mothers being held solely responsible for adhering to safety plans for children.
She attributed this to the profession having a primarily female workforce and a lack of training and resources.
'It's easier to engage a woman'
“It is easier to engage a woman,” Featherstone said.“She’s usually the person in front of you. It’s more likely that she will both see herself and be seen as responsible for the children.”
Research by Featherstone and fellow academic Kate Morris on knowledge around domestic abuse in child protection also highlighted that “the confines of a narrow, risk-focused child protection system” limit the use of holistic approaches, especially when working with men.
According to Featherstone, better engagement with boys and men is critical to improving safety for women and girls. She said this required a “whole-system approach”, underpinned by robust training and supervision.
“You need a space to talk about your fears and then appropriate places to direct men to. There need to be support groups and resources handy.”
Improving practice with fathers
To help improve your practice with fathers, Community Care Inform Children has produced a webinar on the topic.
Kevin Makwikila and Jourdelle Bennett, two fathers with lived experience of the child protection system, discuss how practice can be more inclusive towards fathers and the practical support and information that makes a difference to families. Inform Children subscribers can access the webinar here.
