This latest Green Paper genuinely seeks to encourage adults to create a stable environment for children. Once policy-makers focus their thinking properly on children, they will inevitably recognise how much can be achieved by supporting fathers. The document speaks only of using it to get lone parents ( i.e. mothers) into work.The authors of the Green Paper are vaguely aware of shortfalls in their thinking.

The Ministerial Group on the Family, headed by Jack Straw, plans to focus next on “the needs of young men and the support available to fathers”.This is a step forward. Harriet Harman’s initiative was supposed to be about children, but in fact was largely about getting mothers into work So fathers’ interests were ignored. The document is also an advance on the Green Paper on Child care earlier this year. So, instead of dispatching health visitors to toddler groups (which fathers rarely attend because they are working) you could send parenting advisors to homework centres. “They are ideal for fathers, particularly those not living with their child.” says Adrienne Burgess. “They take place later in the day when men aren’t working and aren’t embarrassed to be seen out with their children.”Meanwhile, the New Deal offers great opportunities to retrain thousands of unemployed men in child care services and so make them father friendly.

The vast majority of women work in jobs offering flexible practices, whereas most men do not, according to “Social Focus on Women and Men”, published last week by the Equal Opportunities Commission.Once ministers start thinking imaginatively about fathers, they could come up with lots of ideas for strengthening the family. Yet the social worker did not consider including him in the parenting counselling.” “Father blindness” is also reflected in the Green Paper’s discussion of family-friendly work It talks about it affecting parents in general But it is much more an issue for fathers. “I recently came across a lone mother being counselled by a social worker, who was trying to help her deal with her son’s learning difficulties. The father was better educated than the mother and was very committed to keeping up contact.”He took his son out three times a week.

It assumes you can plan for this all-encompassing group called “parents” without thinking about gender. “The Green Paper should be saying clearly that there is a general cultural problem, which is reflected in family services,” continues Duncan Fisher. “The culture assumes that fathers are not interested or that they can look after themselves. You can see it in the behaviour of health visitors, in post-natal care, in the maternity wards of hospitals, right through family services.”Adrienne Burgess, author of Fatherhood Reclaimed and the leading British researcher into fatherhood, talks about “father blindness” in help for families. “The message would immediately get through to them and the majority of mothers,” says Duncan Fisher, fatherhood spokesman of the National Childbirth Trust, “that fathers have a distinct and recognised role to play role to play.”These examples highlight a key flaw in the Green Paper. So, if the Government wants men to ring up, Parentline needs big changes “Father” will have to be included in the helpline title. Men must be employed to answer calls and all staff will need to be trained to understand dads’ issues.

Again, this problem is overlooked.The consultation document praises the “Bounty” pack, a gift bag of nappies, creams and other baby ware, provided free in maternity wards. Take-up is very high, providing excellent access to parents, says the document Wrong again The pack does not address fathers in any way But it could be used to contact every dad. Most people assume that anything with “parent” in the title is for mothers. The Green Paper refers to the helpline’s “broad customer base” Yet it isn’t broad as far as fathers are concerned The vast majority of calls are from women. Health visitors could be retrained to understand fathers’ needs Hundreds of male health visitors could be recruited. But the Green Paper doesn’t even spot the difficulty.Consider another proposal.