Engaging Fathers in the Early Years: A Practitioner's Guide.

This guide is intended to help early years practitioners in the United Kingdom actively engage fathers in their child's well-being. It is meant to raise awareness amongst practitioners of the importance of including fathers in service delivery, the difficultness involved in doing so, and approaches to overcoming these challenges. The first part of the text explores a range of topics that contextualize the issue of father inclusion. Chapters provide an evidence-based rationale for working with fathers, an overview of the development of United Kingdom policy in relation to fathers and service responsibilities to engaging fathers across children's services, and a systems approach to collecting information on fathers. Part 2 explores issues relating to father inclusion across a range of early years services in the antenatal and postnatal periods, early years play settings, and in the early transition from such settings to formal education. Barriers to inclusion are discussed with approaches for overcoming these obstacles. The final part introduces notions of diversity in fatherhood. Issues specific to working with young fathers, fathers of children with disabilities, fathers from minority ethnic backgrounds, and separated fathers are discussed, along with approaches to developing effective service delivery. Chapters include key issues for reflection and case examples to illustrate key concepts. Numerous references.