The Fatherhood Institute works to build a society that systematically values, prepares, and supports men’s fathering. Established in 1999, they are the UK’s leading provider of evidence-driven father-inclusion training, parent interventions, policy advocacy, and consultancy. Their vision is to develop a National Paternity Service for the UK – the first in the world.
“Despite decades of progress towards gender equality, the UK’s family policy, services and systems are still designed around the assumption that mothers should be the primary caregivers for children,” says Alison Clare, the Fatherhood Institute’s Head of Transformation. “Our agenda-setting work challenges everyone in the system – politicians and policymakers, commissioners of health and family services, frontline professionals and others who shape family life, like employers – to do better for dads and their families.”
The Greater Manchester: City of Dads project from the Fatherhood Institute is a stepping stone towards this goal. With funding from the Caring Masculinity Fund, the project is delivered in partnership with key organisations, professionals, researchers, activists and local people across Greater Manchester, which has a population of 3 million. The aim is to develop, for the first time, a coordinated strategy for father-inclusive health, education and family services and employment practices across the region’s 10 metropolitan councils. The Fatherhood Institute and Greater Manchester Combined Authority – a pan-regional strategic authority – are working closely together to turn this vision into a reality.
“With this project we want to establish involved fatherhood as a route to inclusive, positive masculinities, a more gender-equitable society, and improved health and wellbeing for all,” explains Alison. “And build a replicable blueprint for region-wide reform elsewhere in the UK and globally.”
Funding from the CMF has enabled the Fatherhood Institute to develop the key relationships and ways of working needed to lay the groundwork for longer-term collaboration across Greater Manchester, supporting the sustainability of the project.
The Greater Manchester: City of Dads project is part of MenCare Cities, a growing international movement to design ‘caring cities’ led by Equimundo. Alongside Equimundo, the Fatherhood Institute has been working with Metropolis and CHANGE to develop the ambition for caring cities in the UK, and to position Greater Manchester as a leader in father-inclusive practice.
Phase one of the project involves strengthening father-inclusive workforce practice and cultures across Family Hubs – publicly funded services for families with children aged 0-19 years – creating a springboard for wider system change across Greater Manchester. The work includes identifying opportunities to redesign large-scale data collection systems, training practitioners to become fatherhood advocates, and briefing strategic leaders to secure commitment to father-inclusion over the long term. And the responses from these leaders have been overwhelmingly positive.
“The strategic leaders showed a high level of buy-in, reflective thinking, and willingness to grapple with the issue of transforming existing approaches to engaging with families to champion father-inclusive practices,” explains Alison.
“This first phase of work has huge potential to be extended and reach more deeply into statutory systems, with the potential to transform men’s, women’s and children’s experiences of fathering across Greater Manchester,” says Alison.
Expansion of the project after the initial phase has potential to reach vulnerable families, including in children’s social care, address Greater Manchester’s internal offer for paternity leave for fathers, and to create impact across the city: reaching businesses, football clubs, and the creative industries to tell the story of fatherhood across the city, transforming the experience of fathering for dads in Greater Manchester.
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