EasyPeasy has been awarded funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), through the Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP), to develop and test new approaches to increasing fathers’ and male carers’ involvement in their children’s early learning and development.
The 12-month project, EasyPeasy Father Engagement at Scale, will be delivered in partnership with Bristol City Council and Darlington Borough Council, two existing EasyPeasy local authority partners. The project aims to tackle a longstanding challenge in early childhood development: how to encourage and sustain greater involvement from fathers and male carers in their children's learning and care, while ensuring that early years services are inclusive, accessible and effective in supporting them.
Through a combination of research, digital innovation and delivery through Best Start Family Hubs, EasyPeasy will explore how to make its evidence-based Home Learning Environment (HLE) programme more accessible, relevant and engaging for fathers, with the ambition of developing a scalable approach that can be adopted by local authorities across the country.
Recognising the important role of fathers in early childhood development
For this project, we recognise fathers and male caregivers as anyone who identifies as male and plays a significant, regular caregiving role in a child’s life. This includes biological, adoptive and stepfathers, as well as grandfathers, uncles and other male relatives or non-relatives who act as father figures. This inclusive definition will guide our research and outreach, ensuring we hear from people with a broad range of caregiving roles, experiences and family circumstances.
Fathers and male carers play a vital role in supporting children's learning, wellbeing and development. From talking, reading and playing together to building confidence and emotional connections, everyday interactions between fathers and their children can make a meaningful difference to early childhood outcomes. However, fathers remain significantly underrepresented in many early years and family support services. Despite growing recognition of their importance, practical, cultural and structural barriers can prevent fathers from accessing support or feeling that services are designed with them in mind, and can also shape their confidence, motivation and opportunities to take an active role in everyday care and learning.
At EasyPeasy, just under 10% of registered users were male at the time of the funding application, highlighting an important opportunity to improve how fathers are reached and supported. The new project will seek to better understand these barriers and what motivates fathers to get involved, and identify practical, evidence-informed ways to increase participation and encourage lasting, positive changes in how fathers care for their children and support their development.
Anne-Marie Canning MBE, Opportunity Mission Challenge Director, said:
“We’re pleased to have such a strong set of projects exploring how to innovate to strengthen dads’ and father figures’ engagement in the home learning environment. We know this is one of the most powerful ways to strengthen children’s outcomes. UKRI’s R&D Missions Accelerator Programme is designed to find new ways of addressing the challenges the country is facing. Breaking down the barriers to opportunities for young people to succeed is vital to ensuring a fairer and more productive future for all.”
Developing and testing new approaches to father engagement
Funded by UKRI through the Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP), the project will build on EasyPeasy's existing digital HLE programme, which supports parents and carers of children aged 0-5 with simple, practical ideas and activities that fit into everyday family life.
The project will explore how the entire EasyPeasy experience can be improved to better meet fathers' needs and encourage more active involvement in their children’s everyday care and development, from initial awareness and registration through to personalised content and sustained engagement. The programme will focus on three interconnected areas:
- Understanding fathers' motivations and experiences: Working directly with fathers and male carers through interviews, focus groups and surveys to explore their motivations, expectations, caregiving behaviours and barriers to engagement. This research will help us understand what encourages fathers to become more involved in their children's learning and development, and how we can better support them to do so.
- Improving the digital experience: Exploring new approaches to onboarding, content, personalisation and engagement, including how technology and behavioural insights can make EasyPeasy more relevant and accessible to fathers.
- Testing new outreach and engagement approaches: Developing and evaluating targeted digital campaigns, outreach through Best Start Family Hubs, and local service partnerships to understand how best to reach fathers, particularly those who are less visible to existing services.
The project will use a test-and-learn approach, combining feedback from fathers with real-world engagement data to understand which approaches are most effective. Key ambitions include increasing the proportion of new male registrations to 20% and achieving a 50% improvement in engagement with relevant home learning content.
Jen Lexmond, Founder and CEO of EasyPeasy, said:
“We know that fathers and male carers have an incredibly important role to play in their children's early learning and development. While many fathers are already actively involved, we want to better understand what encourages greater participation, what might hold fathers back, and how we can support more equal involvement in children's everyday care and learning.”
“This funding from UKRI gives us an exciting opportunity to work directly with fathers to understand their needs, motivations and the barriers they face, and use those insights to better support and encourage their involvement. By combining research, digital innovation and the expertise of our local authority partners in Bristol and Darlington, we hope to create a scalable approach that helps more fathers feel confident, included and empowered to support their children’s development.”
Partnering with local authorities to improve support for dads and male carers
Bristol City Council and Darlington Borough Council will play a central role in the project, bringing their expertise in early years services, Family Hubs and local family engagement. As existing EasyPeasy partners, both councils will help identify and engage fathers within their communities, support research and outreach activities, and explore how local services can better recognise and support fathers as equal partners in their children's development.
This collaboration will help ensure that the approaches developed are not only effective within a digital platform but also practical for local authorities and frontline services to implement. By testing different approaches across two local areas, the project will generate valuable insights into how digital interventions and local services can work together to engage more fathers and support positive outcomes for children.
Chris Bell, Assistant Director of Children's Services for Darlington Borough Council, said:
"We know that parents, carers and wider family networks all play a vital role in giving children the best possible start in life. This partnership with EasyPeasy will help us better understand how we can engage and support fathers and male carers, ensuring they feel welcomed, valued and equipped to play an active role in their children's early learning and development. Through our Best Start Family Hubs and wider early years services, we're committed to developing inclusive approaches that help every child thrive."
The ultimate ambition of EasyPeasy Father Engagement at Scale is to develop and validate a repeatable, evidence-informed approach that can be adopted more widely by local authorities and early years services. Over the course of the project, EasyPeasy will evaluate which combinations of outreach, digital experiences, personalised content and local implementation are most effective in encouraging fathers to participate in their children's learning and development.
This project is funded by the Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP), delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the Opportunity mission. R&D MAP is investing at least £500 million by 2030 in research and development to tackle major problems facing society and the economy.
The programme’s Opportunity Mission focuses on ensuring that every child and young person in the UK can succeed, regardless of their background. It aims to raise school standards, improve the quality of education, and strengthen support for families.