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Salford Young Fathers Project

• A young man was referred into the project by a family support team. He and his partner had been referred to Social Services after an accident in the home, they had found no immediate cause fro concern but felt it important that the family were still worked with in some way because of the nature of the injury.
• Initially the young man was not keen to engage and suspicious about the motivations and reasoning for the work. I also struggled with what role the project would have in working with the young man too, because I did not feel comfortable delivering a piece of work that started from the point of the father as a perpetrator, which had not been proven. After a lot of thought and some open discussion with the father, it was agreed to do some 1 to 1 work with the young man around conceptions of fatherhood, safety, parenting and the young mans own experiences of being parented.
• The young man responded well to the proposal and fortnightly the project worked with the young man and his partner in their own home, from the sessions the young man also went away and did some work and reflection on what we had examined.
• The sessions were received extremely well by the young man, he engaged and participated well, even after a long day at work and was open to discussion and being challenged. He was also honest about his past experiences, and how he felt the sessions were going.
• At the evaluation of the sessions the young man said that he was almost pleased that he had been referred into social services, so that he was able to take part in the piece of work. He felt that the sessions had enabled him to stand back and think about things more as a parent, his partner said that he had become a lot more patient with the children and that there had been no accidents since the start of the work. The young man said that he initially thought that the sessions would be a waste of time but they had turned out to be ‘mindblowing’, and they had helped him realise and deal with his own past a lot better.

A very young couple in conflict

• In August a young man aged 14 was referred into the project by the youth offending team (YOT). He was an expectant father.
• The young man engaged well with the project, and was interested in several of the different opportunities available to him through the project. His mother also voiced some concerns about how the forthcoming baby would affect his life and around the relationship he had with his partner.
• The TP midwife was working with the young man’s partner, who was also 14, both of us discussed the potential of delivering some focused antenatal work to the couple, around their learning needs and becoming prepared for parenthood.
• As the midwife and I were developing a series of sessions to deliver to the young people, growing conflict emerged between the two young people’s families, resulting in the young people being stopped from seeing each other for a time. The midwife and I were also brought into this conflict by the parents of the young people, raising concerns for us about the short and long term welfare of the baby, and the young people’s relationship.
• In the light of this I have met up with the young man several times to work with him around what he wants from the relationship with his partner, and how they are going to support each other when the baby is born.
• The midwife and I have also looked at how this conflict can be eased or resolved, with several avenues, including Family Action and mediation being considered, although this has been time consuming.
• The couple now appears to be getting on a lot better and conflict between the families has reduced. We have just started to do weekly sessions, using a local Children’s Centre, with the sessions focusing upon both preparation for parenthood and relationships, responding to the issues facing the young people.

Contact:
Tom Cole, Young Fathers Worker
Tel: 0161 603 6874 / 0797 196 3167
Email: tom.cole@salford.gov.uk

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