Attitudes towards men and childcare are changing in the home, as more and more fathers vote with their feet and decide to stay at home to play a part in the daily care of their own children. But researchers at the University of Glamorgan think that there is still an urgent need for fostering services, social care services and the wider public to recognise and respect the role men can also play in transforming the lives of other people’s children.

That is why ten male foster carers were recruited from across south and southwest Wales and invited to participate in a two day storytelling workshop, where they shared their experiences of caring for other people’s children. These stories have been collected and made into a book as well as a podcast, in the hope that they will inform social care policy.

The project was acollaboration between the StoryWorks project at the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care at the University of Glamorgan, and The Fostering Network Wales. The project recognised the fact that male foster carers are often made to feel second best in the workplace. The fostering network’s chair Jim Bond said:

‘Foster care has traditionally been viewed as a task undertaken by women, and although times have changed, this still appears to be the public perception. But the reality is that men have much to offer as foster carers and can provide the positive role model that some of these vulnerable children have never had’

The leader of the project Karen Lewis is in charge of StoryWorks at the University of Glamorgan. She said:

‘There are many difficulties in persuading men to consider fostering. This, along with the lack of male teachers in nurseries and primary schools, means that many children may never have a positive male role model during their childhood.’

‘This project will enable male foster carers to use their experience to feed directly into the University's Health and Social Care programmes and this could have a long-term impact on health and social care teaching – both within University of Glamorgan and, potentially, within the wider academic field.’

The men received expert guidance in the art of personal story telling and each crafted their own story, based on real-life experience. The workshop was followed up by discussion sessions with Health and Social Care students and academic staff at University of Glamorgan. This allowed staff and students to engage with the men in order to learn from real-life experience of fostering from a male perspective. It also allowed the men to gain more of an understanding of the theory and methodology that lies behind the education and training of Health and Social Care professionals. This is important because for many of the men this will be their first experience of any university based activity.

Karen Lewis said:

‘Male foster carers are a cultural minority who play a crucial role in our contemporary society and can have a key influence on a young person’s life decisions, particularly at transition points such as leaving school and deciding whether or not to enter Higher Education. Yet, they are a well-hidden group whose voices are rarely heard. This project attempted to change that – allowing a knowledge exchange to take place between the men and academia and beginning to forge links that could change perceptions on both sides.’

The workshop has resulted in the establishment of a support group for male foster carers in South Wales, which did not previously exist. The publication containing the stories of male foster carers is the first of its kind and it is now being distributed across the UK.

Interesting Links

Download the book from the fostering Network website here

Listen to the podcasts here

Find out more about Storyworks here

Lead: Karen Lewis, Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan