Are fathers the missing link in family policy?

The government’s new Best Start in Life (BSiL) strategy demonstrates its concern for children’s welfare. Yet, there is very little around fathers and how their involvement in the early months of a child’s life may also help to improve child outcomes.

The strategy document – which outlines the government’s plans to improve child development - only makes one reference to fathers, mentioned only as a potential group to explore, following learnings from the Test, Learn and Grow pilots primarily aimed at improving engagement with disadvantaged families.

Supporting fathers to be proactively engaged with their children from birth is important. The BSiL strategy notes that cognitive, emotional and social capabilities of children are formed in the early years. Indeed, my research, in collaboration with the Fatherhood Institute, shows that if fathers are involved in interactive types of childcare activities at home - such as reading, playing games, doing arts and crafts - at ages three and five, the child is more likely to do better at primary school in their first year.

How can fathers be better supported?

The Government is reviewing parental leave because it recognises that the system needs improving so that it better supports working families. This is welcome, given that the UK has the least generous paternity leave entitlements for fathers in Europe. Fathers are only entitled to two weeks’ paternity leave paid at a low flat rate (£187.18 per week in 2025) or 90% of average weekly earnings if that is lower.

Shared parental leave was introduced in 2015, allowing fathers to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay of the mothers’ maternity leave but, a decade later, it is still only taken up by 4% of eligible fathers, compared to 80%+ of eligible fathers who take up parental leave in some of the Nordic countries, such as Iceland. This is because shared paternity leave in the UK is too low paid, too complex, and is reliant on the mother transferring some of her maternity leave entitlement to the father.

I (and others) have long argued that UK parental leave needs reform so that it is better paid (at near salary replacement levels) and is more targeted to fathers on a “use it or lose it” basis. This would help fathers to take a more active role in their children’s lives during the early years, which my research suggests should help to set up a pattern of continued father involvement as the child gets older.

Why is this important?

New research by Working Families, the UK’s national charity for working parents and carers, reveals that while many fathers want to be involved in caregiving, they still perceive significant barriers at work/in their workplace that prevent them from doing so. This includes difficulty accessing flexible working, and negative attitudes towards their requests to take time away from work.

Embedded gender norms that position mothers as the primary carer need shifting, and this starts with the provision of better paternity leave rights so fathers can take time off work to engage in their child’s care more easily.

While my research focuses on early educational outcomes, it contributes to a wider evidence base suggesting that children’s early experiences matter for longer-term trajectories. For example, encouraging fathers to be involved may also support other core public policy objectives such as reducing the incidence and costs of family breakdown, which costs the state an estimated £64bn a year, as well as helping economic growth and tackling poverty, given children who do well at school have better educational and employment prospects.

For a government that repeatedly argues that early intervention is a magic bullet both in terms of impact and in delivering major savings to the public purse, focused and targeted early intervention with new fathers seems to be a missing link in social policy.