We’re obviously regularly asked what evidence there is to support DadPad and the goals we intend it to help meet.  Hopefully, some of the points below will help address such queries:

• With any new and innovative approach to a social problem which involves system change and with prevention at its core, it will take time to understand all the benefits and be able to measure them, so as to adjudge the true impact and effectiveness of that approach;
• Having said that, though, there are still ways to accurately see impact – in both social and economic senses – which again require effort and change to implement. This includes surveys, focus groups and data analysis tools which consider direct effects and cost savings (in terms of pounds and pence) for society as a whole. One tool used to measure the economic return on investment made is the Social Value Engine Tool which, when initially applied to the use of DadPad in its early years, came back with a figure which indicated that – for every £1 spent on DadPad – a £56 saving could be made to the community.
• Our entire ‘back catalogue’ of content and approach is evidence-based, guided by over 20 years of research into the importance of father and partner inclusion and focused on the best ways to care for babies and their families;
• We are so pleased to have received so much positive feedback from dads, families and health professionals over our years of operation. We’ve been commissioned by perinatal organisations across the whole length and breadth of England (and also now into Scotland), with many, many repeat orders and licence renewals, all of which shows to us that existing commissioners and professionals are happy with the benefits that DadPad provides to them, their teams and their families.

Want to know more? Have a look at our Why DadPad? blogpost.

We’ll also have further blogs and info up on our website soon, detailing other reports and research that has been undertaken regarding the impact of our resources.

The DadPad products are for all fathers who want to give their child the very best start in life.

Whether he is about to become a first-time dad or wants to ensure that he can still cover all the bases with a new addition to the family, the DadPad is the low-cost, high-value resource that all dads will want to always have within arm’s reach.

As a new dad, it’s common to feel excited but also left out, unsure or overwhelmed. The DadPad provides dads with the practical skills and information that he needs, which helps him become more confident in his new role.

This enables him to not only feel equally included and involved as a parent in his own right, but also to be become an active and engaged co-parent, alongside baby’s mum.  As an ally to his partner, he will be best placed (and now sufficiently informed) to be able to spot potential issues within the family unit, and to know the steps to take to resolve these.

Knowledge of the roles played by healthcare professionals will encourage him to seek and welcome their advice and support when necessary.

The Co-ParentPad is for all non-birthing parents who identify as LGBTQI+ and who want to give their baby the very best start in life.

Whether they are about to become a first-time parent, or whether they want to ensure that they can still cover all the bases with a new addition (and however that baby is arriving within their family – birth, adoption, surrogacy, etc), the Co-ParentPad is the high-value resource that all LGBTQI+ parents will want to always have within arm’s reach throughout the perinatal period.

It’s also for perinatal healthcare professionals wanting more information and guidance on how best to support the LGBTQI+ parents-t0-be and new parents in their care, to ensure that those people feel safe, welcomed, comfortable and respectfully cared for.

As a new non-birthing parent, it’s common to feel excited – but also left out, unsure or overwhelmed. Traditional sources of information for new parents are commonly written for birthing mums in heterosexual relationships, which can make other new-parent demographics feel unseen, unsupported and/or discriminated against.

Taken as a whole, the Co-ParentPad aims to provide non-birthing LGBTQI+ parents with the practical skills and information that they need to help them become more confident in their role. This will enable them to not only feel included and involved – and seen – as a parent, but also to become an active and engaged co-parent, alongside the birthing parent.

As an ally to their partner, the reader will be best placed – and now sufficiently informed – to be able to spot any potential issues within the family unit and to know the steps to take to resolve these.  Knowledge of the roles played by the health professionals surrounding the family will encourage them to seek and welcome their advice and support when necessary.

First of all, it’s important to remember that the DadPad resources have many more intended purposes than ‘just’ being a guidebook or resource to help dads find out more about the skills needed to be a hands-on father.  The resources are also designed to be used by frontline healthcare professionals as an embedded engagement tool, as part of your whole family approach to perinatal care.

The main ways that DadPad resources can be used to engage with dad are:

• as a means of engaging and building a relationship with dad, so that dad knows that he can trust you, be honest with you about his fears and worries, and confidently share any concerns he has with reference to his own, his partner’s or his baby’s health and wellbeing – and encourage his partner to do the same;
• an empowerment tool for dads, especially those who are less confident and/or younger and/or more vulnerable, helping them to recognise their value and importance in their baby’s life; and
• a means of starting to build a picture regarding any potential safeguarding concerns within the new family dynamic.

Want to know more? Have a look at our Think Family blogpost.

Ideally, your lead commissioning team will have linked you up with some training, prior to the launch of the DadPad app and resources in your area.  This should have provided you with information on what they want you to share with the families that you are supporting, and how those families can access books and/or the app.

To download the app, dad should be given some means of accessing our DadPad app webpage, from where they can find the links that they will need to access the app for your area.  This might be via a QR code that you keep digitally (e.g. on your phone or iPad), or via flyers, business cards, stickers etc that you share with the families that you visit and support.  We also have posters, pull-up banners and other options for sharing this information.

If you’d like further information on accessing some of these resources for use in your work with new families, please contact us either via our Get in touch page (using the General Enquiry form) or by emailing hello@thedadpad.co.uk and we’ll do our best to assist ASAP.  If you could please let us know which county or Trust you’re working in, that would be really helpful.

If you’d like to find out more about potentially commissioning DadPad resources for use within your local area, please do get in touch. You can contact us either via our Get in touch page or by emailing hello@thedadpad.co.uk and we’ll be in touch ASAP.  If you could please let us know which area of the country you’re based in (including your Trust/Hospital/Local Authority employer), that would be really helpful.

If used as intended, the DPNN works on a number of levels, including:

• On arrival at the Neonatal Unit – by helping dad feel valued and recognised in his own right, letting him know that a path has been prepared for him, and helping aid his understanding and engagement in all the new information that he’ll be receiving;
• On return to the family unit – by providing him with a means of storing all that pertinent information in an easily-accessible way, making it easier for him to feedback to the wider family and, as relevant, to mum herself;
• Whilst on the Neonatal Unit – by having his own copy of the DPNN resource, he can have it to hand at all times, to learn more about all that’s going on whilst sitting alongside his baby, to look up anything he wants to check, and/or note questions as he thinks of them, all of which will help him feel more included, more confident and more empowered;
• Coping with emotions – by highlighting and normalising the emotional impact that this time will be having on him and baby’s mum, together with information on how to best look after each other, where to go to seek further support, and giving him an opportunity to record and reflect on his own feelings;
• Preparing to leave the Unit – by providing key information on all aspects of going home, which will help him and baby’s mum prepare; and
• Much later…! – by providing dad with the opportunity to note down key information, emotions and feelings, and other special memories, the DPNN can also serve as a keepsake memento for dad to share with his child at a later date, which will of course further help strengthen the all-important bond and attachment between them.

Want to know more? Have a look at our What is the DadPad Neonatal? blogpost.

The DadPad Neonatal is intended to be used as an integrated part of a neonatal unit’s FICare Model, and is therefore not suitable for use by an individual in isolation.  If you’d like to have seen the DPNN available in the Unit that your baby is in, please speak to one of the healthcare professionals supporting your family at this time, and share with them our contact information.

Right from the start of developing the DPNN, the idea of family-integrated care has been central.

Using the DPNN within a Neonatal Unit promotes the idea – right from the very start – that parents, and dads in particular, are seen as equal partners in the care of the baby. The resource encourages regular interaction and communication, the asking of questions and sharing of knowledge and information between parents and team members. Information is included which provides suggestions on how dad can start to become hands-on in the care of his baby.  Future ambitions – with the development of the forthcoming DPNN app – will include the provision of online community groups within which dads can share their experiences with others in the same position and also seek support from the neonatal team.

The DPNN also provides information directly to dads which outlines their role as caregivers, and which also includes a range of information which dad can use to really start getting to grips with better understanding the terminology and equipment used within the Unit, all of which will help to empower him as a primary caregiver in his own right.

A clear focus on dads’ emotional response to the situation that he finds himself in is front-and-centre in the DPNN.  One of the first things that the resource asks him to do is to reflect on how he is feeling, with prompts share to encourage him to reflect, but also to recognise that he may well be experiencing a whole range of emotions, all of which are completely natural and none of which are ‘wrong’.  Later in the resource, there’s further information on ways in which he can look after his own wellbeing at the time (including information on national support services) as well as that of his baby’s mum.

Having the DPNN as an integrated part of the FICare culture in a Neonatal Unit ensures that engagement and interaction with baby’s dad becomes an ingrained, established and automatic part of the admission process, and beyond.  Ensuring that each dad receives his own copy of the DPNN, addressed to and written specifically for him and his needs as a new dad, will ensure that no one is forgotten or overlooked, and each dad is empowered to start conversations, seek information and ask questions.

Yes! We’ve got a DPNN app in the final stages of development, ready to be available in commissioning Neonatal Units from 2026.

Watch this space for further information…

If you’d like to find out more about potentially commissioning the DPNN resource for use within your Neonatal Unit or Neonatal ODN, please do get in touch. You can contact us either via our Get in touch page or by emailing hello@thedadpad.co.uk and we’ll be in touch ASAP.  If you could please let us know which Unit(s) you’re based in, that would be really helpful.

The Co-ParentPad is a quick reference, hard copy baby guide to support non-birthing (non-gestational) parents who identify as LGBTQI+. Developed by the team at Inspire Cornwall CIC, with support and guidance from LGBTQI+ parents and health professionals, it’s aimed at providing an LGBTQI+-affirming alternative resource to DadPad.

A whole range of current national initiatives, research papers and policies have, in recent years, called for greater whole-family engagement by maternity, perinatal and other related services, acknowledging the role, importance and needs of all those surrounding the child, and not just the birthing person.

After hearing from LGBTQI+ parents and parents-to-be who had encountered the DadPad, we realised that there was a gap here that wasn’t being filled by other organisations. In the same way that resources aimed at providing support to new dads need to be written to meet their specific needs and requirements, a resource for LGBTQI+ co-parents also needed to be carefully researched, written and focused.

The Co-ParentPad is for all non-birthing parents who identify as LGBTQI+ and who want to give their baby the very best start in life.

Whether they are about to become a first-time parent, or whether they want to ensure that they can still cover all the bases with a new addition (and however that baby is arriving within their family – birth, adoption, surrogacy, etc), the Co-ParentPad is the high-value resource that all LGBTQI+ parents will want to always have within arm’s reach throughout the perinatal period.

It’s also for perinatal healthcare professionals wanting more information and guidance on how best to support the LGBTQI+ parents-t0-be and new parents in their care, to ensure that those people feel safe, welcomed, comfortable and respectfully cared for.

As a new non-birthing parent, it’s common to feel excited – but also left out, unsure or overwhelmed. Traditional sources of information for new parents are commonly written for birthing mums in heterosexual relationships, which can make other new-parent demographics feel unseen, unsupported and/or discriminated against.

Taken as a whole, the Co-ParentPad aims to provide non-birthing LGBTQI+ parents with the practical skills and information that they need to help them become more confident in their role. This will enable them to not only feel included and involved – and seen – as a parent, but also to become an active and engaged co-parent, alongside the birthing parent.

As an ally to their partner, the reader will be best placed – and now sufficiently informed – to be able to spot any potential issues within the family unit and to know the steps to take to resolve these.  Knowledge of the roles played by the health professionals surrounding the family will encourage them to seek and welcome their advice and support when necessary.

Using the Co-ParentPad has the potential to bring many benefits, including helping and enabling the new parent to:

• reduce their own anxiety, by getting involved and gaining in confidence;
• learn how to create a strong bond and healthy attachment with their baby;
• build stronger family relationships by sharing the load and learning how to parent together;
• identify ways in which they can develop their own role as a parent; and
• recognise the signs of post-natal depression, and other common forms of perinatal mental ill-health, in both themselves and their partner, and learn how to get help early.

We selected ‘co-parent’ as the term to be used on this resource as we felt that it met most of the core requirements – i.e. it is:

• a gender-neutral term, to acknowledge that our intended readership would not fit into one straightforward category (unlike the DadPad, which has always been intended to be used by male dads in a heterosexual relationship with a birthing female); and
• it provides a clear message of recognition that this non-birthing partner was going to be on an equal footing with the birthing parent, and that the pair would be parenting together, as a team.

You can read more about our choice of term and the reasoning behind it here.

This is currently in development, and coming soon!

We’re also looking to develop versions of our other resources – including the DadPad Neonatal resources and our huge catalogue of ‘Ask DadPad’ blogs – to be relevant to LGBTQI+ non-birthing parents.

We’ll share updates on all of these developments on our website and social media in due course.