Workforce Training

NEYDL TRAINING

Practical training for father-inclusive practice

Practical, evidence-based training to help professionals understand young fathers and put father-inclusive practice into everyday work.

Built on NEYDL’s own frontline experience and grounded in national research, our training gives professionals the confidence and tools to engage young fathers more effectively, and to strengthen outcomes for the whole family.

Delivered online or face to face, our courses are highly interactive, combining group discussion, practice dilemmas and case discussion with digital tools and mixed-media resources to create participatory learning.

Father-inclusive practice always works alongside safeguarding. Throughout, the training recognises professionals’ safeguarding responsibilities and the needs of the wider family, and participants explore how to balance father inclusion with them. NEYDL applies the same thinking in its own work, with a dynamic risk assessment process for every young dad we support.

Why Now

Children’s services are being reshaped around early, whole-family support. The 2026 edition of Working Together to Safeguard Children names fathers and male carers among the parents and carers practitioners should adapt their approach for. Families First Partnership guidance expects local areas to plan how they will reach fathers and male carers in child protection work, and Best Start Family Hubs guidance says fathers and co-parents need to be informed and supported by services.

Engaging fathers well gives professionals a fuller picture of a child’s family, strengthens whole-family practice and, ultimately, improves outcomes for children. Our training helps teams make that happen through practical changes that fit within existing roles and caseloads.

Why NEYDL

We’ve supported professionals to work more effectively with young fathers since 2017, and delivering training directly to professionals is already part of how we work, not something we’re starting from scratch.

Our Track Record

221

Young dads supported directly in 2025/26, averaging 45 hours of engagement each.

100%

Of the young dads we work with would recommend our service to others.

696

Professionals and young dads registered on DigiDAD.

86%

Of young dads involved with social services and/or Team Around the Family had Child Protection or Child in Need plans downgraded or completed.

Research & Co-production

Our training draws directly on NEYDL’s frontline relationship-building experience, alongside independent academic research, including:

NEYDL’s role as a named partner in Newcastle University’s INCLUDE study (2025–27) into father-inclusive practice in children’s social care.
The longitudinal Following Young Fathers Further study led by the University of Lincoln (2020–24).
NEYDL’s inclusion as an example of best practice in Dr Esmée Hanna’s 2018 book, Supporting Young Men as Fathers.

Co-produced with young dads and professionals

The training is co-produced with young dads, NEYDL staff and frontline professionals. Its development has included a consultation day with young dads and NEYDL staff, conversations with health visitors, social workers, family support workers, family time workers and a SENCO, and a survey of frontline professionals.

Congratulations, you’re a dad!

“Most services don’t start with ‘congratulations on being a dad!’ They start from the ‘Oh my god this is going to be so hard and difficult! What were you thinking?’ They start from the negative, from a place of judgement.”

Will, who became a dad for the first time aged 17

Our Courses

Choose from two standalone half-day courses, or combine both for a comprehensive full-day programme. We’d generally recommend starting with Understanding Young Fathers & Father-Inclusive Practice before moving on to Engaging Young Fathers in Practice, though we know some professionals will already have a grounding in the fundamentals.

Get in touch and we can advise on the right starting point for your team.

Understanding Young Fathers & Father-Inclusive Practice

Half-day course
Supports professionals to better understand young fathers’ experiences, challenge assumptions and recognise what father-inclusive practice looks like in everyday professional settings.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Recognise the diversity of young fathers’ experiences and challenge common stereotypes and deficit-based assumptions.
Understand some of the social, relational and systemic factors that can shape young fathers’ engagement with services.
Recognise fatherhood as a potential source of identity, motivation, resilience and positive change.
Explain the importance of relationship-based practice, professional curiosity and recognising strengths.
Identify how everyday professional interactions and organisational processes can either support or unintentionally hinder father inclusion.
Identify realistic changes within their own role or service that could strengthen engagement with young fathers and support whole-family practice.

Engaging Young Fathers in Practice

Half-day course
Focuses on the practical skills professionals can use to establish, maintain and repair engagement with young fathers, particularly where relationships, circumstances or professional involvement are more complex.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Identify a range of factors that may sit behind apparent disengagement or non-attendance.
Use professional curiosity to move beyond labels, assumptions and previous information.
Apply relationship-based, strengths-based and trauma-informed approaches to engagement.
Identify practical ways to build and maintain trust through communication, consistency, transparency and choice.
Balance father inclusion with safeguarding responsibilities, professional boundaries and the needs of the wider family.
Apply father-inclusive approaches to realistic situations within their own professional setting

Understanding & Engaging Young Fathers

Full-day course

Combines both half-day courses into a single, comprehensive programme. It builds understanding of young fathers’ experiences in the morning, then translates that into practical engagement skills in the afternoon.

If I was a professional…

“If I was a professional talking to a young dad, I would start by congratulating him on becoming a dad and I would reassure him like what roles he has as a dad. So pretty much exactly the same as the mother, apart from I can’t breastfeed. And I’d just make sure he knows that, as most young dads don’t feel valued.”
Richie, who became a dad aged 15

Delivery Options

We know releasing staff for training isn’t always straightforward, so our courses are designed to flex around your team’s capacity, not the other way round.

Timings

Standalone half-day course, online or in person (around 3.5 hours, including a break).
Full programme, online or in person: one full day.

Group Sizes

Online: maximum 20 participants.
Face to face: maximum 24 participants.

Splitting the Full Programme Across Two Dates

For teams who can’t release staff for a full day in one go, we can deliver the full programme as two half-day sessions on separate dates, for example running Understanding Young Fathers & Father-Inclusive Practice on one day and Engaging Young Fathers in Practice a fortnight later.

This works for both online and face-to-face delivery, and can be repeated across multiple groups to train a larger workforce over a short period without taking anyone out of work for a whole day at once.

Who Delivers It and What You Receive

Every session is delivered by two NEYDL facilitators, including staff who have lived experience as young dads using services, so the learning is grounded in both frontline practice and lived experience.

Everyone who attends receives a certificate of attendance for their training records and personal development plans.

Who It’s For

A range of voluntary and public sector organisations can benefit from this training, including:

Family Hub teams
Local authority Early Help and Parenting Lead teams
Health visiting and midwifery services
Social work and family support teams
Youth justice services
Education settings
Charities and voluntary organisations working with families or young men

Left out in the dust!

“The fathers have as much stress as the mothers do, but professionals only seem to work around the mothers. If you get together with mam then they will work with you, but the minute you break it off you’re just left out in the dust. So, getting left out pretty much, which I find isn’t fair.”
Mark, who became a dad aged 19

Pricing and Booking

Get in touch and we will talk through your team, the challenges you are seeing locally and what you want the training to achieve, so we can recommend the right course, format and group arrangement for you.

We can also develop bespoke training or provide consultancy support where an organisation needs something more tailored than our standard courses.

Following that conversation, we will send you a clear proposal setting out what we recommend, how it would be delivered and the fee, based on your requirements.

Get in touch and we’ll talk through what would work best for your team.

Alex Blake
Business Development Manager
alex@neydl.uk

Enquire about training →

Not Ready to Talk Yet?

Explore DigiDAD, our free online learning platform and peer support community created by the young dads of NEYDL.

It has father-friendly films, animations, podcasts, courses and a chat function, and it is open to professionals as well as young dads.

Have a look at what it offers and share it with the young dads you work with.

Explore DigiDAD →