Tracing the lives and support needs of young fathers: A participatory, qualitative longitudinal and comparative analysis

The proposed study advances understanding of an under-researched topic; the lived experiences and support needs of marginalised young fathers (aged 25 and under). It has an ambitious aim of both understanding and transforming the way society currently thinks about young fathers and the extent to which these ideas influence policy and practice support that enables them to be positively engaged in their children's lives. In the current UK context, young fathers are often viewed as 'a problem' within family social policy (Duncan 2007). In professional settings, including maternity, child and family support services, these negative pervasive assumptions have been found to translate into practices of surveillance or sidelining by practitioners (Neale & Davies 2015). Such practices also exclude young fathers from dominant expectations of 'engaged fatherhood' (Miller 2011), despite proven societal and wide-ranging benefits of men's involvement in caregiving for children, mothers and fathers (Ives 2018). Current policy and practice approaches therefore reinforce and reproduce the very stigma and exclusion they seek to diminish against a backdrop where knowledge about the diversity and dynamics of young fatherhood remains limited. The broad aim of this research is to address this gap in knowledge, offering a unique extended, longitudinal and international evidence base, and evidenced practice and policy solutions that promote gender equality and the citizenship of young men who are fathers.

The data and findings generated will be interrogated through fresh theoretical and substantive lenses, addressing the following research questions:
1) How do the multiple disadvantages faced by marginalised young fathers impact on their parenting trajectories and longer term outcomes and aspirations?
2) How are young fathers' experiences shaped within a shifting climate of policy and professional practice and evolving ideologies of engaged fatherhood?
3) What are the benefits and key challenges of initiating supportive, client centred models of intervention in the UK and what might be learnt across comparative, international contexts?

The study will document and intensively track the changing lives of a number of young fathers, both over time and in different comparative contexts and implement and evaluate equality friendly practice. This will enable a clearer picture to emerge about the impact of different cultures of understanding and expectations on young fathers and how varied professional responses shape their experiences, their orientation to fatherhood and their capacity to sustain positive relationships with their children and families. The study is multidisciplinary in scope, straddling youth, family and parenthood research and provision, and social work, housing, employment and health care policy; fields that will be drawn upon and integrated. It also engages with a shifting policy landscape that has moved on since the days of New Labour's 10-Year Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood Strategy (1999-2010). Using creative, participatory qualitative longitudinal (QL) methods of enquiry, the study will produce new understandings of this shifting landscape of family, parenting and youth policy and its impact on the lives of young fathers. Three complementary strands of work will ensure research impact and uptake including: 1) an extended QL study of the dynamics of young fathers' lives and support needs in the UK, examined within a shifting climate of policy and professional practice and evolving ideologies of engaged fatherhood; 2) longitudinal engagement with practice partners from the Young Dads Collective and Grimsby to track and evaluate developments in innovative forms of good practice that respond directly to key policy challenges by recognising young fathers as 'experts by experience'; and 3) an international, comparative enquiry (UK and Sweden) and the development of an international research network on young parenthood.

Key beneficiaries: Multiple stakeholders will be involved in the study from the outset, ensuring numerous practical benefits and outcomes that will increase knowledge and understanding about young fathers and greater effectiveness in policy and practice. Key beneficiaries include young fathers and their families (UK and Sweden); policymakers in national government (across family, education, health and social care, and youth policy domains); service managers and practitioners in local government and the third sector; and the wider public.

Benefits: Young fathers: An extended evidence base about the experiences and support needs of young fathers is vital for ensuring they achieve their aspirations to be engaged fathers, with positive outcomes for them and their families. They will benefit from the establishment of the YDC in Grimsby via improved engagement with services, and subsequent social, health and economic benefits. These young men will be trained, upskilled and given a platform to share their experiences with practitioners, both local and regional; engage in campaigning and influencing; and support a wider constituency of young fathers to access health services, social care, youth support, education and employment opportunities. Previous YDC members have experienced substantial personal change and increased access to education and employment prospects via this approach (Tarrant & Neale 2017). The new cohorts of young fathers who participate in the UK and Swedish studies will also benefit from engagement in longitudinal research, where their subjective experiences are recognised, respected and validated within wider academic debate.
Local government/third sector: The Grimsby case study ensures multiple impacts for local and national partners. Locally, the NSPCC, YMCA and North East Lincolnshire Council will collaborate to strengthen their existing offer by ensuring joined up work across the region. The existing practice of local managers and frontline staff working in a range of mainstream family, child and welfare services will be informed directly by the young fathers and by evidence. Coram Family and Childcare, who manage the YDC, will benefit by upscaling and evidencing the applicability and sustainability of their initiative. Professionals from pre- and antenatal services, youth offending teams, youth work, social work, counselling projects, and schools and colleges from across the UK, will be invited to events fronted by young fathers in Grimsby that will challenge them to see them in a different way. They will be asked to commit to changes in practice reflecting how they intend to operate in a more equality friendly way. The evidence produced will inform the efforts of policymakers, campaigners, and commentators at regional and national levels, by contributing to the development of a more effective, nuanced and evidence-based policy response to the diverse needs of young fathers. Accessible briefing papers and resources will be made available on the project website, and promoted at training events and via the international network.
Policymakers: As above, findings from this research will assert the vital need for ongoing support for young fathers and to recognise this as a public health issue and priority area. An evidenced model of good practice support for young fathers will be developed that both national and international policymakers can promote as a standard for ensuring positive support. International policymakers will be engaged via the newly established research network. Arising is an evidenced based solution for tackling social and economic disadvantage among young men with international, as well as national relevance.
Public: The wider public will benefit from young men who are better enabled to fulfil their economic and social aspirations and citizenship. Young Father's Truth events will also be held across the UK, aiming to challenge stereotypes and promote gender equality in family life.