The Toolkit is designed to help managers and
practitioners meet the strong policy requirements for father - inclusive services coming from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and elsewhere: in the Children's Centre Guidance, the Childcare
Act 2006, the National Services Framework for Children,
Young People and Maternity Services, the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, the Gender Equality Duty (in the Equality
Act, 2006), and so on.
This position is supported in the Code of Practice to the Mental Health
Act 1983 which now states that it would be inadvisable for
practitioners to rely on the consent of a person with parental responsibility to treat a
young capacitated person or a competent child who has refused the treatment.