Hansard

I declare an interest in Dads Rock, as an unpaid trustee of that new Scottish charity, which is based here in Edinburgh and was started in my constituency. I thank the 40 MSPs who have supported the motion, given it cross-party support and allowed the debate to take place.

Dads Rock began as an idea back in October 2011 when David Marshall and Thomas Lynch, who have young children of their own, realised how little there was locally to allow dads some one-to-one time with their young children. Rather than just moan about the lack of provision, they decided that they would combine David’s interest in music with Thomas’s experience as a postnatal depression counsellor and create a support service that is a fun, positive and rocking playgroup for dads and their kids. David Marshall, one of the founders of Dads Rock, and some of the fathers who attend the playgroup are in the public gallery.

David and Thomas launched the first group on 11 February 2012, thanks to a £3,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund. Gate 55, in the Sighthill area of my constituency, provided space to hold the weekly group on Saturday mornings. Every week, about 30 dads and their kids under five attend, with nearly a third of those fathers being new Scots from Poland. Dads Rock provides a range of activities for children under the age of five, including play time, painting and drawing, snack time, story time and music.

Music is very important to David and Thomas, hence the name Dads Rock. They sing traditional playgroup songs and end with the Queen classic “We Will Rock You”, where dads sing the words and their kids play along with every conceivable toy musical instrument, including a mini drum kit, and it ends in a crescendo of noise, as any good rock concert should.

It soon became apparent that dads and their kids were travelling from across Edinburgh to attend the Sighthill group, so the second playgroup was launched by the Minister for Children and Young People, Aileen Campbell, on 27 October 2012 in the Granton area of Edinburgh, thanks again to a grant from the Big Lottery Fund. That group also runs on a Saturday morning and on average has around 20 dads coming along each week.

However, Dads Rock is not just a playgroup. It is also a place for dads to go to speak to other fathers about being a dad. That peer support is just as important as the provision of a safe and comfortable place where fathers can play with their children. Nobody gives fathers a manual on how to raise children, and everyone wants to do the best for their kids. Many fathers worry about the extra pressure that comes from having children, whether it is through financial pressure, increased responsibilities or just a lack of sleep, so there is a need for somewhere fathers can discuss family-related issues.

Then, there are the fathers who are separated or divorced and who struggle to maintain contact with their children. The welfare reform changes that have been introduced by the United Kingdom Government are making a bad situation worse; fathers who are in receipt of housing benefit are losing up to 25 per cent of that benefit as a result of the bedroom tax changes, even if they have overnight contact with their children. It cannot be right that children no longer have a bedroom in their parent’s home as a result of fathers being forced to downsize.

There is also the attitude of some social workers, health visitors, nursery staff and primary teachers, who appear to have an implicit prejudice against fathers in relation to their ability to care for their children. If we are serious about getting it right for every child, we must change how some of the individuals who are involved in statutory services think of the role of fathers, and make sure that they begin to treat fathers as equals in their role as carers.

Dads Rock is not just about providing a support mechanism. Thomas Lynch said to me:

“We all just want to give our children the best, to ensure they feel loved and cared for, be able to play with them and have some one-to-one time which are both vital to their development. Children can get so much from their dads, and I know from personal experience that we can get so much from being with them and looking at the world through their eyes.”

In their first year, David and Thomas established the first playgroup in Sighthill six months after coming up with the concept. They expanded 6 months later to the Granton area and obtained charity status on 21 March this year, 13 months after opening. Gate 55 has now proved to be too small and earlier this year the original group moved to larger premises at Whale Arts Agency.

Despite creating and growing a new charity, there is no rest for the founders, David and Thomas. The interest from dads, the media and the general public in Dads Rock has been so great that they will soon launch the third playgroup, in Dunfermline. In conjunction with Fife Gingerbread they have secured funding for a male playgroup facilitator, the charity’s first employee, and he is to be tasked with scouring Dunfermline for the ideal venue. They have also had enquiries from the Glasgow area and are investigating the possibility of another playgroup under the Dads Rock banner.

David and Thomas have so much commitment to and enthusiasm for Dads Rock that they are already thinking about how they can expand their musical playgroup to fathers who have children older than the under-five age group. Dads Rock academy, in association with Edinburgh College, will be starting in October for older children at the Sighthill campus. That innovative project will again be the only one of its kind, offering free music tuition and a free musical instrument to local kids and dads. David said to me before the debate:

“We know that kids get so much from music. It helps to build their confidence and can give better outcomes for them, so it makes sense to continue the musical theme, have some fun, support dads and carry on rocking.”

In 2014 they aim to take Dads Rock to prison, because approximately 50 per cent of dads who go to prison lose contact with their families. They want to change that. Young teenage dads are another group that need support, so David and Thomas are investigating whether there is a way that Dads Rock can help to support them in a school setting.

The past year has been one of fantastic achievement for the new charity, thanks to the drive of the two founders, David Marshall and Thomas Lynch. They believe that every part of Scotland needs Dads Rock. I am sure that they will keep on rocking until that is achieved.

17:09