In the past 20 years, social change and expectations for both maternal and paternal responsibilities have highlighted the need for services for families to better understand the role of a father in family relationships. In Australia, as well as internationally, there have been many contested understandings about what constitutes ‘good fathering’ in research, social media and in the political sphere. More specifically, there has also been an emerging trend to understand the challenging task of recruiting and maintaining men’s involvement in child and family services programmes, particularly those fathers who are deemed a risk to children and mothers, violent or have been separated from their children. That many child and family/welfare services have exercised dedicated effort to work with fathers is still a relatively recent phenomenon, and has only emerged following criticism that services have been too geared towards working only with mothers. Despite this increasing interest, there is still ongoing need for more research to be undertaken in Australia. An important area of focus is the views of professionals about their perception and engagement of fathers, particularly the views of fathers who are described as being absent from family-based services. The purpose of this article is to report briefly on a study undertaken to examine how child and family welfare workers engage fathers in their work. First, this paper will describe some of the social and health benefits to fathers and their children, focusing on the key role of attachment through play. Research into effective service delivery involving fathers will then be presented, concluding with key practice factors necessary for fathers to be involved in family life.

These elearning resources use audio, video and interactive technology to assist in exploring parental substance misuse, its effects on children and parenting capacity and the implications for social work practitioners.

Explores the implications that parental substance misuse has for social work practice and to recognise when an assessment is needed.

Explores how parenting capacity may be compromised and how children may be affected by parental substance misuse.

An introduction to the different types of substances commonly misused and the effects that these may have on the people taking them.

Longitudinal research seminar took place The Scottish Universities Insight Institute, Glasgow, on the 20th and 21st of April 2011. The intention was to identify the core constituents of a robust longitudinal design that would be fit for the evaluation of the efficacy of everyday professional intervention aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable children. The intention was also to explore the type and range of data that is required to capture fundamental aspects of everyday multi-professional intervention and child well-being. On the basis of this we identify the most appropriate measures to capture intervention and child well-being and develop a robust analytical package for capturing outcomes over the short, medium and longer term. Glasgow Parenting Support Framework Evaluation: school readiness and longitudinal trajectories using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and linked health data. Lucy Thompson, Public Health Resource Unit, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

All of us who work with families carry into our work a whole set of beliefs and values about family life and how children should be cared for. This learning object is designed to make you aware of these personal values and how they might impact on your practice. This learning object explores the way that personal values can effect the way you deal with families and seeks to help make practitioners aware of the impact and implications that this can have. You will be asked to capture your initial thoughts relating to 3 case study images depicting different aspects of family life. Afterwards you will hear three child care professionals discussing their thoughts on each case study and the care that they would provide. After listening to these extracts you will be asked to reflect upon whether these individuals allowed their personal values and beliefs to affect the way that they responded to each case study. This is followed by a conclusion highlighting the codes of practice for child care professionals.

Parents living in poverty face a complex set of issues at individual, family and community levels that make parenting more difficult. In this e-learning resource you will explore a case study of a family, to try to gain an understanding of some of the difficult choices faced by parents in poverty, as well as support services that could help parents cope.

A series of 9 modules on key aspects of poverty, parenting and social exclusion with particular reference to children and families.