Uncut and Boys Development Projects in schools Inputs
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Impact:
* These scores are taken directly from the strengths and difficulties questionnaires devised by the Social Research Unit at Dartington and completed during the programme itself with the input of students and teachers. All students taking part stabilised their behaviour overall regardless of improving their scores.
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Outcomes:
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Education Employment and Health
Impact:
*This denotes each successful outcome with all employment at least 6 months in length
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Outcomes:
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Fathers Development
Inputs:
We are pleased that fathers work continues to grow and that we have preliminary findings of our three year longitudinal study on working with fathers funded in large part by Esmee Fairbairn but also other local authorities including Southwark, Greenwich, Lewisham, and Westminster. This is the first full academic/scientific evaluation of any of our father’s services carried out by Dr Victoria Bourne of the Royal Holloway University -we tracked a core group of more than 20 fathers over three years working with us and other local services.
Impact:
We found that, fathers that engaged in our services showed a significant shift in parenting style during this time from permissive to authoritative which is initial evidence that working with fathers has positive longer term impact on not just the father but also the child in question. Additionally, children under two years of age of fathers who are more engaged in parenting services were measurably more advanced developmentally than those that had not engaged. This is a great evidence based outcome for children’s services as a whole and justifies those long serving Local Authorities that have supported our work over the years. Equally, we also found that fathers who had experienced difficult relationships with their own fathers were more likely to require support in relation to their parenting and engaged over longer periods.
On independent review Dr Neal Hazel Director of the Centre for Social Research at the University of Salford had this to add “More dedicated services for fathers could fill a need for both social support and tackle some of the intergenerational issues left over from how they themselves were parented. The services can also help fathers get a clearer sense of their roles in modern families. Many dads are unsure about their ‘added-value’ in modern parenting partnerships and fathering support can reassure them of their place. They can learn that it’s ok to be a dad, and bring their own strengths as men. This reassurance can encourage greater participation in the family and children can benefit from more engagement”.
