Co-creating digital education about parenting and father-inclusive practice: combining QL impact research and commercialisation for the social good

This unique qualitative longitudinal impact and innovation project builds on the dynamic qualitative longitudinal evidence base about young fatherhood and father-inclusive practice established through the Following Young Fathers Further study (Tarrant, 2020-24). It does so by establishing novel and innovative mechanisms for knowledge exchange that are designed to increase the parenting capabilities of young fathers and improve professional support cultures. Young fathers (aged 25 and under) continue to be some of the most marginalised and misrepresented populations and are subject to continued stigma and vilification in policy and practice. Where young men have been described as absent and feckless, and gendered professional cultures and environments operate to sideline them, the Following Young Fathers Further research has generated compelling evidence to the contrary. To date, the study has highlighted the transformative potential of young fatherhood on the lifecourses of young men, as well as the value of facilitating participatory approaches through research that directly involve them in innovative solutions that involve training them in advocacy. This research demonstrates that the promotion of compassionate, father-inclusive support among multi-agency professionals, alongside investment in young fathers as advocates for themselves and others, is a powerful approach to addressing their marginalisation, by promoting new, positive visions of them.

Building on this evidence and involving young fathers and professionals as advocates and champions, this project will facilitate the co-creation and development of a unique innovation; a digital e-learning platform called DigiDAD. Developed in partnership with those with lived experience of either being, and/or working with, young fathers, we will co-create innovative, interactive content for the e-learning platform that will serve a dual-purpose. First, the platform will address national training gaps by educating and empowering multi-agency professionals with a remit to support families, providing affordable access to the tools and knowledge required to support young fathers and to evidence-based, father-inclusive approaches to support. Second, it will feature podcasts and videos with educational and informative conversations between young fathers and multi-agency professionals, that are designed to support young men with their parenting and to navigate complex support systems. An overarching aim of investing in DigiDAD is to establish a unique digital service offer whose sustainability is ensured longer-term through research commercialisation.

To ensure that DigiDAD promotes the evidence base, the content presented on the e-learning platform will be supported by two, research-based activities. This includes 1) extending and consolidating qualitative longitudinal and international evidence on young fatherhood and father-inclusive practice and 2) growing an international research centre called the Centre for Innovations in Fatherhood and Family Research (CIFFR) at the University of Lincoln. An international literature review will be produced about father-inclusive practice to develop a definition, a new conceptual framework and core competencies for professionals, to advance theory and practice in the support of fathers. The Centre will aid in building international coalitions of researchers and experts to enhance and extend the evidence base and ensure appropriate pathways to impact, through the promotion of DigiDAD and its content.

Building on the learning from the innovations of the first four years of the Fellowship, it is anticipated that these activities will deliver in unanticipated ways on the broader aim of instigating radical theoretical shifts in practice and social policy responses to young fathers so that they reflect democratic principles and discourses of compassion and concern for others.