About this toolkit

Engaging Men to Safeguard Children

This online toolkit has been developed to support practitioners to identify, understand, and meaningfully engage with men in the lives of children in order to strengthen safeguarding practice and improve outcomes for children.

Men play varied and significant roles in children’s lives as fathers, non‑resident parents, partners, relatives, carers, and community figures. When these men are unseen, poorly understood, or excluded from safeguarding processes, risks can be missed, protective factors overlooked, and opportunities for change lost.

This toolkit brings together research, practice wisdom, and safeguarding learning to help professionals engage men confidently, safely, and with appropriate curiosity.

Toolkit Essentials

Why This Toolkit Matters
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Safeguarding children relies on a whole‑family approach. Too often, assessments and interventions focus primarily on mothers or the parent most visible to services. This can lead to:

Incomplete understanding of family dynamics
Over‑reliance on one caregiver’s account
Missed risks posed by unknown or disengaged men
Missed opportunities to support positive male involvement
What it's all about?
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Engaging men is not about minimising risk or lowering safeguarding standards. It is about:

Making all significant adults visible in assessments
Improving the quality of risk analysis
Reducing blind spots in professional decision‑making
Supporting safer, more informed interventions

Meaningful engagement with men strengthens safeguarding by ensuring no one who matters to a child is ignored.
Who the Toolkit Is For
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This toolkit is designed for practitioners and managers across universal, targeted, and specialist services, including

Children’s social care
Health services
Education and early years
Youth justice
Police and probation
Voluntary and community sector organisations
Safeguarding partnerships

It is relevant for practitioners working with children, parents, carers, and families at all levels of need.

What the Toolkit Covers

Across the different pages, the toolkit explores

Who the men in a child’s life may be and why they matter
Why fathers and men are often unseen in safeguarding work
Cultural, structural, and professional barriers to engagement
Practical guidance on identifying and involving men
Safeguarding risks, red flags, and complex harm
Domestic abuse, emotional harm, and parental conflict
What men say they need from professionals
Case studies and applied learning
Signposting to support services

Each section can be used independently or as part of a wider learning journey.

How to Use This Toolkit

You can use this toolkit in a range of ways

Practice reference – dipping into specific sections to support casework
Supervision and reflection – using prompts and case studies
Team learning – as part of training or development sessions
Service improvement – reviewing policies, forms, and assessment processes

The toolkit is not linear. Practitioners are encouraged to navigate between sections and follow the links to related guidance across the site.

Getting Started

Practitioners new to this topic may wish to begin with:

Defining dads and men in children’s lives
Why men go unseen
Identifying the men in a child’s life

Others may prefer to go directly to practice guidance, safeguarding risks, or case studies. All pages are interlinked to support easy navigation.

By making all significant adults visible, we improve our understanding of children’s worlds and our ability to keep them safe!