Saturday 22 January 2011

Early Intervention: The Next Steps

Graham Allen's review was published this week. It can be found at:


http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/early-intervention-next-steps.pdf


We made our own contribution to it and it was good to see the following sentence on page 48


"Health and early years services need to do more to ensure that expectant mothers and fathers are offered high-quality community-based preparation for parenthood that includes learning about the needs of babies during pregnancy and early life and how to make the successful transition to parenthood."


At last there is recognition that expectant fathers, as well as expectant mothers, should be offered some means of preparation for fatherhood. Perhaps our new course can become part of that provision. But the fact that the word 'father' appeared nearly EIGHT times less frequently than the word 'mother' suggests that policy makers still have some way to go.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

A big day for dads

It's all happening today. An article appeared in The Times this morning. Entitled "The reality of being a teenage dad" by Elizabeth McFarlane, it has an almost accurate quote of mine. You can find the article at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/relationships/article2875431.ece but to read it you'll have to subscribe for £1, then unsubscribe!


Then this evening Panorama broadcast its programme, "Where's Dad?", about fathers who lose contact with their children.

And finally I've just finished writing the Tutor Pack to go along with Dads Matter Too, the rewrite of our original dads' course. All we have to do now is to get it checked by our friends at the National Open College Network to see that it's at the right standard for Level 1 accreditation. When that's done we'll see if we can get it published. Jackie has agreed to produce an A4 copy of the DVD cover to use as the front cover for the course. Thanks Jackie!

Thursday 13 January 2011

Dads Matter Too

At last. I've finished the course rewrite. I'll be taking it round to check out what people think about it. If any of you read this, put it out on Facebook cos I know more of you use that than the blog. Ta!