Social Work with Fathers : Positive Practice

The majority of fathers, father-substitutes and father figures wish to do well by their children. However, as a number of high profile cases testify, fathers often feel that they receive poor treatment at the hands of the social care system. Recent research points to the value of involved parenting by fathers while government policy initiatives, such as the Gender Equality Duty in Scotland, have attempted to stress the importance of involving fathers in their child care.

Gary Clapton proposes a father sensitive, father aware social work practice and suggests that that any social care system that adopts a default position that child care is the responsibility of women alone is hampered by its failure to acknowledge the positive potential of fathers. The arguments advanced in this book concentrate on children and family practice but do not neglect the importance of fatherhood in social work with vulnerable adults, fathers as carers, or in the criminal justice system.

Social Work with Fathers will assist those working within social care and children's services, students of social care and social work and policy makers.

Gary Clapton is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh.