‘How’s Your Father?’ (HYF) is an innovative approach to developing professional practice with fathers involved in social care services. We have combined academic research with theatre to bring research findings to life and use the characters and their stories as the basis for reflective training activities. The How’s Your Father theatre show is based on findings from two significant research studies of fathers’ experiences of local authority social work and the family courts. These are the UEA study ‘Counting Fathers In – men’s experiences of child protection services’ (2014-17) and the UEA-Lancaster study ‘Up Against it – understanding fathers and recurrent care proceedings’ (2017-2020).

At the end of 2019 the four partner organisations first met together to discuss creating a piece of theatre about fatherhood based on academic research. Our aim was to use research to provoke and open conversation about fathers’ experiences of services, father engagement (and the wider/deeper topics of fatherhood, gender and care).

Then the Covid 19 pandemic hit! Our early developmental work moved online and involved sharing and discussing the research findings along with our respective professional experiences of working with fathers. We also conducted a small local survey of fathers’ views of social work services, secured some funding for the project, and set up a steering group to advise and monitor our work.

In the Spring of 2021, we began the work of devising and writing the show. We worked hard, under the direction of theatre maker Simon Floyd, to find a way to turn the real-life stories and scenarios from the studies into a credible, engaging, piece of theatre. We created the characters, produced the script, wrote songs and music, then cast and rehearsed the show. In October 2021 we delivered a Norfolk-wide run of nine public performances, including one at UEA, to wide acclaim.

In April 2022, we held an event in Norwich to launch our documentary film. This was attended by senior Children’s Services managers, voluntary sector and legal practitioners and fathers with live experience of services. We were also awarded a UEA Engagement award in July 2022 for our innovative and collaborative approach to research dissemination and public engagement.

To build on this momentum and interest in the theatre show, we sought funding to deliver a second tour to target professional social work audiences and create additional professional development resources. We secured funding from the Nuffield Foundation, Arts Council England, and the UEA Research Impact Fund. From January 2023 to February 2024, this second phase of our work involved three main activities. We programmed a tour in three local authorities (Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex), developed and used the script to create an in-person training workshop and a set of short films to use as the basis for professional development resources, and recast the show using professional actors. During October and November 2023, we delivered 14 performances and seven workshops across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, mainly in local authority workplaces and professional conferences. We collected data on audience numbers and feedback and in Feb 2024 produced a project report on the work we have done.

Each performance of ‘How’s Your Father?’ is preceded by a short introduction, given by Georgia Philip to prepare the audience for what they will see and to give some important context for the show. Almost all the fathers who took part in the research were from lower-income or working-class backgrounds, were heterosexual, and were White British. This means that the stories presented reflect that, and that other things that shape how men experience being a father, such as ethnicity, sexuality, or disability, are not directly explored. There are many, many stories of fatherhood to be told, and we hope that ‘How’s Your Father?’ can prompt more interest in reflecting and comparing experiences of fathers’ in different communities.