Why Father Inclusive Practice?
The answer to this question will depend, to a large extent, on who is asking. But it is an important question as it underpins what we do with fathers and how we do it. The four approaches to the 'Why?' question are described in the Why Father-inclusive Practice? document (141 KB pdf), which also contains links to more extensive discussions of the various approaches.
Those providing face-to-face support to families are generally supportive of changes to include fathers because their personal experience of fathers (of their own father or as fathers of their children) confirms the importance of fathers for family wellbeing, or they find the lack of fathers in their service to be a problem. For service staff the ‘Why’ question is often translated into ‘How?’ since the practical day-to-day involvement of fathers is a new area of practice.
Fathers and Families research at the Family Action Centre covers father-inclusive practice, attachment theory, and the examines the competencies and capacity-building that support fatherhood.