Key principles in developing a plan
Use the objectives of the Children and Young People's Plan as a starting point and find out how these objectives have been translated into a strategy for engaging dads in your area and in your organisation.
This will help you to contact partners who may be able to advise and support you, identify where there are gaps in provision and avoid duplication of effort. In this way your work will fit into the "bigger picture" and demonstrate the Bookstart contribution to local objectives. It will also make your work have more impact and be more visible.
Set out what do you want to achieve and make sure your managers, colleagues and partners understand and support your aims. You may decide to run sessions or activities directly or to promote Bookstart aims and objectives in partnership by contributing to existing groups' programmes or courses, or you may do a combination of both.
Find out what dads have to say about what they want. Different dads will want different things and understanding what they want will help you focus or target your activity.
Take time to research supporting resources and seek out local or regional colleagues who are working with dads and may be able to help you clarify your aims.
Build a whole team approach - everyone in your setting needs to understand what you are trying to achieve and how they will contribute to success.
Think about the practical details such as publicity, timing and location.
Get your partners to help you directly or by being your ambassadors in publicising the activity and recruiting dads.
Think in advance about how to record outcomes so they can be used to evaluate, publicise and promote work with dads in your area.