The Benefits and Challenges of Training Child Protection Social Workers in Father Engagement

It is widely recognised that, in a child protection context, practitioners tend to focus on working with mothers more than fathers. This may undermine risk management and limit the resources available for the care of children. This paper discusses the process of developing and running a training intervention for child protection social workers, designed to improve father engagement (with fathers defined inclusively). A short course was provided, consisting of one day of awareness-raising about the importance of work with fathers and one day of motivational interviewing skills training. The emphasis in the paper is on insights from the qualitative elements of the mixed-method process evaluation, namely, observation and pre- and post-course interviews. In particular, there is discussion of the potential benefits and challenges of this kind of training, with consideration given to the general issue of father engagement and more specifically the potential for using motivational interviewing in child protection practice. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The process of developing and running a training intervention for child protection social workers Key Practitioner Messages The pilot of the Cardiff University Fathers and Child Protection course resulted in improved engagement of fathers, according to social workers self-report. Motivational interviewing has potential for developing practitioners' skills in working with fathers when children are at risk. There are some inherent challenges in attempting to improve the engagement of fathers in a child protection context.