Marginalised fathers

The implications for services January 15th, 2016

  

Themes

• What do we know about fathers in families who come to the attention of child protection services?

• What aspects of fathers' lives and situations are relevant to the issues that trouble families and services? 

• Thinking about race, class and gender when developing services that are helpful and effective

The knowledge base • The knowledge base generally is poor but it is possible to say• There is a strong link between deprivation and being subject to child

protection processes • Families are complex with high numbers of non-resident birth fathers and

social fathers • Histories of deprivation and poverty - class, race, ethnicity ….• Mental health and physical health issues• Histories of abuse • Domestic abuse

The issues we know even less about

• What is going on for men and women in families? • What do they want for and from each other? • What do they think a ‘good relationship’ looks like? • What do they think a ‘good family’ looks like? • What are their views on what supports them in, or stops

them, caring safely?

What do fathers want from services?

• Reliability • Fairness • Consistency • Time • To be heard

Thinking about race, class and gender

• Frank• Trevor • Abdul • All three involved in care proceedings where the children had been

permanently removed from their mothers- non-resident fathers with contact • Plan was either adoption or long-term fostering • All three were black men who came to UK from either Africa or the

Caribbean • Immigration status issues

• All were on low incomes and lived in shared housing • Minimum wage job, seasonal work and one unable to work

because of immigration status

Trevor

• Afro-Caribbean man • Did not hear about the proceedings until very late in the

day • Seen as having a history of drug abuse and domestic

violence • Reading and scrutinising the files and police records told

a different story

Frank

• Was refused an assessment because of his lack of history • Non-person • He was in immigration limbo – come as a child so had no

papers • In the paradoxical position of being outside the legal

protection of citizenship, but nevertheless subject to the full force of state power

Abdul

• Assessment questioned whether his culture/religion would allow him to care for the children

• However he was mainly criticised for not securing suitable housing

references

• Gupta, A and Featherstone, B (2015) What about my dad? Black fathers and the child protection system, Critical and Radical Social Work,, http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204986015X14502659300361

• Maxwell, N et al (2012) ‘Engaging fathers in child welfare services: A narrative review of recent research evidence’, Child and Family Social Work, 17,2, 160-169