Better support for fathers would reduce family breakdown and improve children’s life chances

Sep 7, 2017 by Jill

by Derek Thomas MP, Conservative Home:

When we talk about family breakdown, what we really mean is dads leaving families. According to the latest ONS data, 2.7million children have no father figure at home and over one million children have little or no contact with their birth father. Forty-one per cent of non-resident fathers have little or no contact with their child. Some years ago the Centre for Social Justice identified 236 fatherlessness hotspots in England and Wales, where more than 50 per cent of households with dependent children had no meaningful contact with their birth father. As a country we are sleep walking into a fatherlessness crisis. This which is one reason I’m supporting a Manifesto to Strengthen Families with Fiona Bruce MP and dozens of colleagues.

To some extent, the Government gets it. Just before the General Election, the Department of Work and Pensions released a policy paper called Improving Lives which made it clear in Whitehall jargon that ‘services’ have a long way to go to recognise fathers and ensure they play an active role in the lives of their children. Only one in four dads feel that there is enough support to help them play a positive role in family life. The Government indicated it might review how to support fathers. My hope is that, despite the many other priorities, the Government seizes this opportunity rather than kicks it into the long grass or simply forgets to do it.

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