The Teenage Pregnancy Myth

Keen readers of this blog will be aware that Graham Allen’s Early Intervention review contained the word ‘mother’ nearly 8 times more than the word ‘father’. Radio 4’s programme on Monday, The Teenage Pregnancy Myth, went rather better. The words ‘mother’, ‘motherhood’ and ‘mum’ were mentioned 65 times, the word ‘father’ only 3 times, with the familiar ‘feckless’ adjective being attached to one of these. And a mother of a teenage mother was interviewed, but not the father.

It’s not that word counts say anything about the value of any document or programme. But they do suggest that the fact that men are also involved in pregnancy, that fathers are important in the lives of their children (see my paper at http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm/volumeID_23-editionID_184-ArticleID_1644-getfile_getPDF/thepsychologist/0310whit1.pdf), and that some of the consequences of fatherless families are of concern (see the previous post) are being glossed over.

More media dad stuff

The perils of reading The Daily Telegraph - in yesterday’s edition its political editor reported on an “official review into the causes of last summer’s riots (which) is expected to highlight the lack of “male role models” for many of the youths arrested in the wake of the widespread disturbances.”

The report can be found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/9135087/The-72000-problem-families-with-no-father-and-no-male-role-model.html and points out that the majority of Britain’s 120,000 ‘problem families’ are fatherless. Of course, they’re not fatherless because somewhere there’s a father. So it might be profitable to develop policies that tackle the causes of 'fatherlessness', alongside those that only deal with its consequences. Prevention as opposed to cure once again.

Dads Matter Too - the DVD

It’s always good to receive a bit of praise so it was great to read the following from a contact who is interested in Dads Matter Too - the course. She said that the DVD had “gone down very well with our young mums who are keen for us to offer it out to the dads. Would it be possible to purchase 2 or 3 copies please?” It’s encouraging that someone is finding it relevant three years after it first appeared.

Behavioural institutions for five year olds

The perils of reading the Mail Online ... its education correspondent has written a piece about a report written by the government’s ‘behaviour tsar’, according to whom, “Children at risk of descending into a life of crime and aggression can and should be identified at the age of two ... His report is expected to be accepted by Education Secretary Michael Gove today.”

The article, which can be found at:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111844/Children-age-TWO-lessons-anger-management-contain-themselves.html#ixzz1oWUljrO3 fails to mention the circumstances through which two year olds could acquire such behaviour traits. Those of us who believe in the value of (very) early intervention and think that prevention is better than cure - and possibly cheaper - might feel that the correspondent, and Mr Gove, is missing something.

Then again, perhaps we shouldn’t believe all we read in the press.

More media dad stuff

Louis de Bernières, patron of Families Need Fathers, was interviewed by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Radio 4 this morning. Their discussion dealt with fathers’ access to their children after relationship breakdown, another reminder of the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. Is it possible that fatherhood issues are slowly surfacing in the mainstream? Let’s hope so.

New BBC Three programme

I received an email yesterday from a guy called Jack Gledhill. He's trying to spread awareness about a forthcoming BBC Three series. The channel is looking for couples who are expecting their first baby this summer to take part. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary since fathers were first allowed to step foot in the delivery room. So, fifty years on, the programme will look at getting Dads even more involved during late pregnancy, labour and assisting in the birth of their first child. The intention of the series is to promote a positive pregnancy, birth and parenting experience for both parents.

If you know of anyone who might be interested you can reach Jack on 0208 225 6916. Alternatively you can ring 07940 261552 or 0208 576 1081 or email pregnant@bbc.co.uk.

International parenting approaches

Carolyn and I attended a conference on Tuesday which had been organised by Parenting UK and the Wave Trust. Speakers gave presentations about the Leksand approach in Sweden, Kraamzorg work in Holland and the Community Mothers Programme in Ireland. What was particularly impressive from our point of view was the Leksand focus on fathers and the ability of statutory and non-statutory Swedish agencies to work together. We intend to find out how successful the approach has been in reaching and working with Swedish ‘U-Too’ dads.

A Dad Is Born

Two programmes in two days. Let’s hope this is the beginning of a national dialogue about fatherhood, and the importance of fathers, as well as mothers, in the lives of their children. What was particularly striking was the admission by one of the three men that the negative experience he’d had of being fathered had a strong impact on his attitude to becoming a father. Similarly one of the men in the previous night’s programme was concerned that he might replicate his own father’s hurtful behaviour. These impacts are identical to those acknowledged by all the young men with whom we’ve worked. It would not be difficult to conclude that fathers matter, for good or ill. As a society we just need to minimise the ‘ill’ bit. Easily said ...

Daddy Daycare

Because mainstream television programmes about fathers are such rare events, any programme focussing on fatherhood has to be welcomed. But it was disappointing that last night’s programme seemed a set up job. It was unrealistic to expect any lay person to appear competent in the scenarios presented to the dads. Indeed a cynic might think that the single mothers running the nursery had a vested interest in demonstrating that, as fathers didn’t have the necessary skills, they were not really needed. To say that the men were being “patronised" is inappropriate in the circumstances, being “matronised” might describe their circumstances more accurately.

Co-operation between men and women in the care of children, avoiding stereotypes, might be a more fruitful topic to televise. Hopefully tonight’s BBC 2 programme will be an improvement.

Getting a mention

It’s good to see the links to so many organisations that are working with fathers on THE MEN’s NETWORK. These can be found at http://brightonmanplan.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/has-the-world-gone-dad/, including a link to this blog.

It looks like John has been consulting for Channel 4 because tonight’s Daddy Daycare programme looks like it’s using his ideas. ‘Bout time too. Woman’s Hour also had a ‘dads’ piece today so it’s beginning to look like fatherhood issues are inching up the agenda. ‘Bout time too (again). But, like the Daily Mail, the programme used the dread ‘single mother’ phrase, failing to recognise that for every 'single mother’ there’s a ‘single father’ and that children need both parents.

Men and Boys Conference

It’s been a while since my last post, mainly because I wanted the news about our course to be seen as soon as visitors opened our link. But stuff HAS been happening. A couple of agencies have already acquired the licence to use the course and others are interested. And at the beginning of November Carolyn and I went to the first Men and Boys Conference in Brighton. We put some U-Too news on display boards, gave a talk about the course and met old friends, including Melvyn Davies, who John will remember, and Rob Williams from the Fatherhood Institute, who Den has met.

Rob has arranged for news about the course to appear in The Fatherhood Institute’s next email and I’m helping to put together a list of organisations working with fathers. The idea is that eventually a network of such organisations will be created to lobby for more resources for work with men and boys, and for fathers in particular.

"Preparation for Fatherhood" course

Carolyn and I met with Chris Latham this morning. Chris is Development Manager for the Open College Network's south-western region (OCNSWR). We worked out what we need to do next to try to get the course accredited. The following discussion of the issues involved appears on page 4 of the CSJ's response to Frank Field's report.

Coming alongside young fathers-to-be

There are few programmes to help young fathers-to-be, although Graham Allen made the point that ‘Health and early years services need to do more to ensure that expectant mother 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.’

U-Too, a 2010 CSJ poverty-fighting Award winner runs such programmes to help young fathers-to-be. It used the Award money to fund a rewrite of their course so that it could gain accreditation and be made available to other agencies that would then be eligible for funding. Although they completed the rewrite using National Open College Network’s Progression Units, the current restructuring of acceptable qualifications might mean that the Units used are no longer available. If this is the case, they will fail to receive accreditation. Smaller organisations who are trying to establish the validity of a programme and have designed it according to recognised tenets, may still struggle to obtain the necessary accreditation for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with programme effectiveness.

The complete CSJ response can be found at:

http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/client/downloads/2011182_CSJresponse_childpovertyconsultation.pdf

Young dads-to-be course

Carolyn and I met with Valerie Hall on Monday. Valerie is a Quality Reviewer for the National Open College Network (NOCN). Valerie confirmed that the course we've rewritten is at the upper end of the requirements for a Level 1 Award, which is good news. Even better is that she thought it's user friendly, not patronising, and gives participants ownership of their own learning. Best of all, Den and Mark feel quite envious of anyone who does the new course because they both wish they could have done it instead of our original version!

But there's a problem. The course is linked to five NOCN progression units which we now learn may not be available after the end of July. So we're going to see if we can make it a stand-alone qualification. We're going to meet with Chris Latham, our regional NOCN Development Manager, in early March to see what can be worked out. Watch this space!

Silver Stars

Jenny, Lisa Den and Steven were presented with their Silver Arts Award certificates by the Mayor of Swindon, Cllr Rex Barnett, at last Tuesday's Presentation Evening at The Platform. This represents a considerable achievement for all four, but especially for Den and Lisa, both of whom had left school with no GCSEs. So it's a reminder that, given the right circumstances and support, young people from their background can achieve remarkable success.

Silver Arts Award

Steven, Den, Lisa and Jenny will be presented with their Silver Arts Awards on Thursday next week at The Platform in Swindon. Steven's story appears on the Arts Award website at:

http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=2156&action=preview&backTo=index