The Equal Parenting Project - Policy Impact

The Equal Parenting Project (EPP) was formed back in 2017 with the aim of using academic research to help break down barriers to all parents taking on childcare responsibilities, particularly in the first year after birth or adoption. We are committed to undertaking impactful research to help make positive change for parents through improving organisational processes and policy and UK legislation. In order for our work to be impactful we develop initiatives and resources that will encourage engagement and future impact. 

Engagement for change

The EPP prides itself on undertaking collaborative engaged research that has the potential to create change in family friendly policies and help promote gender equality. To do this, it is very important that the EPP engage with a wide variety of stakeholders who are critical in these decisions. Over the years we have built a network of those very engaged in the shared parenting and flexible working agenda across industry, media, the third sector, government departments and parliament. 

Fathers in the Workplace Toolkit

A key resource the EPP has developed is the free-to-use ‘Fathers in the Workplace toolkit’ that contains a range of practical tools and guidance to better support fathers at work and give parents more choices around childcaring in the early years including: 

• How to set up an inclusive parenting group which encourages fathers to be more involved
• Guidance on how to effectively implement a returners programme for fathers in the workplace 
• How to improve communication and access to parenting policies as well as parenting groups
• Information on developing your own ‘parenting passport’, a document which records important information about a parent’s caring responsibilities and support needs, helping to create an understanding between the parent employee and their organisation

Working Dads Employer Awards

Fathers are a very large proportion of parents in the UK and they experience significant barriers to caring for their children. These include barriers around gendered caring norms, financial barriers and organisational culture barriers and career barriers. These barriers need to be addressed in order to help more fathers take on longer periods of care, support mothers and other parents and help improve women's labour market attachment and reduce the gender pay gap. 

In order to encourage employers to better support working dads, the Equal Parenting Project and Music Football Fatherhood co-developed the Working Dads Employer Awards in 2022. These awards are free to enter, have a robust application and judging process with key NGO’s on the judging panel and recognise those organisations that are doing great work supporting working dads. The awards have four categories based upon the research of the EPP and include: Flexible Working, Parenting Policies, Support for Returning Fathers, and Leadership and Culture. All submissions to the awards, whether they win or not, receive research informed feedback to aide continuous improvement in their support for working fathers. 

Another key output from these awards is about encouraging winners to share their experiences with other employers and help other employers to improve their practices. This is done by the case studies we develop alongside select winners of the awards from each category and through us putting companies in touch with one another to share ideas. The case studies will help other organisation understand how to begin the journey to implement more support and the key benefits that can accrued for the organisation when they implement the changes in this area. Our aim is to ensure that other organisations understand how they too can begin the journey to better supporting working dads. 

Flexible Working and Future of Work Project

At the start of the pandemic the EPP began the Flexible Working and Future of Work Project which involved collecting data on manager’s experiences of homeworking. The aim of the project is to understand the impact of working practices since COVID-19 on manager attitudes and intentions as well as organisation’s intentions around the various kinds of flexible working in the future. With this information we can help break down barriers to more inclusive flexible working which will also help families to be able to share care. The project is done collaboratively and our key external stakeholders in government departments and NGO’s feed in questions based on their work to ensure the underpinning studies remain relevant and forward looking. There is also a longitudinal element to this work.

What are the impact related plans of the Equal Parenting Project in the future?

The EPP is committed to achieving positive change in company’s policies and practices as well as UK legislation to help enable and encourage shared parenting in the future. As academics we are very keen that our research is making a difference beyond academia. We have worked constantly over the years with policymakers/ civil servants, MPs, HR teams, Directors of Companies, third sector organisations and even those that want to know how best to approach their line manager with a question related to a policy etc. We will continue to work toward this goal based on our passion to see parents having more opportunities to be with their children.