An early Christmas present came with the announcement on 21st December that Families Need Fathers Scotland, along with a wide range of other children and family support organisations, has been awarded funding for 2016 and beyond through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund.

Children's Minister Aileen Campbell announced this core funding by saying “Tackling inequalities is at the heart of this government’s ambition to create a fairer Scotland and charities and other third sector groups are crucial in achieving this. I’m delighted we have been able to provide funding for so many organisations that provide vital support for families and communities across the country."

Families Need Fathers Scotland is very grateful to Scottish Government and also to the Tudor Trust for continuing to provide financial support for our work in helping parents deal with contact problems and promoting the benefits for children of shared parenting after separation.

During 2016 and beyond we will seek to set up new local groups, carry out research on the provision of  support for separated fathers from various minority ethnic communities and continue to provide a wide range of information on legal issues and other forms of dispute resolution. 

We will carry on our work on the involvement of non-resident fathers in their children's education and extend this by looking at the provision of medical information to both parents after separation.

Following a nailbiting wait, we are happy to announce that Families Need Fathers Scotland has had significant funding support confirmed for 2015-16 and beyond.

The Scottish Government is providing Strategic Partnership grants totalling £25,000 for 2015-16 for FNF Scotland’s core work providing information and support to non-resident parents (and other family members) and also to help separated fathers gain access to health and education information about their children. With other partners FNF Scotland will also assist practitioners to work with these parents.  This will build on our "Equality Apart" project that already provides guidance on this topic.

In addition the Tudor Trust has awarded a three-year grant totalling £120,000 to enable FNF Scotland to create a new ‘Partnership and Outreach’ staff post. The new post will build a bridge between the support and advice FNF Scotland gives to individuals to the practice of the many professions – from teachers and GPs to lawyers and judges - who may become involved with separated families at some point.

In its offer letter the Tudor Trust says, “The Trustees agreed that Families Need Fathers Scotland was very much needed and offered an accessible and helpful route into understanding the requirements of the Scottish legal system.  … They particularly liked the Equal Parents guide [to rights of non-resident parents to be included by schools in information about their children] as they thought this would be very  useful in helping to diffuse tension and encourage a calmer and more considered approach". 

Ian Maxwell, National Manager of FNF Scotland said, “FNF Scotland is very grateful to the Tudor Trust and the Scottish Government for supporting our work.  This comes at a time when we are receiving increasing numbers of enquiries and are pressing for improvements in the workings of Scottish Family Courts as part of the current civil justice reform process.

In the last year we had close to 15,000  visitors to our website. Support and advice was given to over 1,500 individuals who contacted us by phone or e mail or attended our monthly meetings in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Stirling and Edinburgh. The figures are disturbingly high for a small country that affects to be proud of its commitment to its children but our sense is that we are only touch the tip of an iceberg of distress and dissatisfaction. We believe that our new outreach post will open the eyes of many professionals to the positive role that they can play in preventing difficulties turning into crises.”

FNF Scotland will still need to raise further funding in order to confirm the new staff post. Financial support from the people who use our information is always welcome, and we already have some runners taking part in the Men's 10k on Father's Day in Glasgow to raise funds for us.

 Families Need Fathers Scotland will receive new funding over the next two years as a strategic partner of the Scottish Government.  We have also been successful in a funding application to the Big Lottery, in partnership with Parent Network.

The new government funding was announced by Children's Minister Aileen Campbell at the end of a Scottish Parliament debate on 7th May about the work of Dads Rock, the musical playgroup for dads.  It will be used for work on supporting parenting by separated fathers by developing new support materials and training. 

We will also be working with other organisations to ensure that they include consideration of non-resident parents in training programmes.  A good example of this is the work of Stepping Stones North Edinburgh, who now run a support group for young fathers "Dads Matter" alongside their "Mellow Bumps" group for young mothers.

Families Need Fathers Scotland has been successful in our application to the Scottish Government's Equality Fund.  We have been awarded a grant of £15,000 per year for the next three years to provide information and support for fathers and other family members facing contact problems after separation.

Our work to improve understanding of existing legal rights and promote involvement of non-resident fathers in their children's education will also be supported through this grant.

The new Scottish charity has also received a donation from the Robertson Trust to support our work with local self-help groups in Scotland.  Families Need Fathers Scotland was established as a separate Scottish charity as part of a two-year project funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2010-2012.

"This support means that Families Need Fathers Scotland can continue to offer services and support to the  individuals who contact us and the local groups in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Stirling, as well as planning further groups in other parts of Scotland" commented National Development Manager Ian Maxwell. 

"John Forsyth and I will continue to develop the work of FNF Scotland, and we are fortunate to have Catherine MacPherson working with us part-time for three months as a graduate intern, supported by the Adopt an Intern scheme." 

Catherine has a Diploma in Professional Legal Practice from Aberdeen University.  She will be carrying out research into various aspects of family law policy, including preparation of a parent's guide to Bar Reports.