If you were told there was a magic ingredient which could help a child to be happier, achieve more and develop well socially, you'd bottle it, sell it and probably make a million.
One such ingredient isn't for sale, but has usually been overlooked in the past the influence of a loving and attentive father.
However, that's changing in a major way as fathers and their importance to child development become a key plank in Government policy across a range of areas.
'Early research into child development centred on the mother-child relationship,' says Adrienne Burgess, author of Fatherhood Reclaimed and co-founder of the information group, Fathers Direct. 'They didn't think to acknowledge that the father had an influence even if he wasn't around.'
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