Childcare practitioners are increasingly keen to encourage fathers to be more involved, be it in nurseries, Sure Starts or family centres. The reasons are not just sentiment or political correctness.
Fatherss have much more responsibility for children's care than ever before. Indeed, they now do one third of parental childcare in dual earner families, according to research published by the Equal Opportunities Commission.
The active involvement of fathers, and father-figures, can also make a big difference to child development. Pre-schoolers typically have better social skills, according to Charlie Lewis, professor of developmental psychology at Lancaster University. Early father involvement, he concludes, also has pay-offs in terms of children's educational achievement, better long-term mental health and a reduced likelihood that a young person will get into trouble with the police.
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