Paternal engagement as a protective factor against child and family adversity (Individual advocacy) | External submission

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 808

Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future

Generations) Bill 2026

Submitted by: Thomas Docking, Founder and CEO, Dads Group

ABN: 66 621 506 134

Date: 1 June 2026

About Dads Group Dads Group is a national not-for-profit organisation founded in 2014, with over 11 years of delivery history supporting fathers and their families during the perinatal and early childhood period. We deliver an evidence-informed Integrated Model of Care (IMC) spanning hospital, community, and digital streams across Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and regional and remote communities including Mount Isa, Rockhampton, Mildura, Gawler, and the Sunshine Coast.

Dads Group is a proud endorsing member of the Australian Child and Family Supports Alliance (ACaFSA) and fully endorses the ACaFSA submission to this inquiry. This standalone submission amplifies the father-inclusive practice dimension of that submission, providing specific evidence, a theory of change, and targeted recommendations that warrant dedicated consideration by the Committee.

Why This Submission Stands Alone While the ACaFSA submission raises father-inclusive practice as a cross-cutting issue, the evidence base for paternal engagement as a protective mechanism in the perinatal period is substantial, peer-reviewed, and policy-ready. It represents one of the most under-utilised levers available to the NDIS to reduce developmental vulnerability, lower DFV risk, and improve long-term child outcomes — at relatively low cost.

The NDIS currently has no mechanism to assess, plan for, or measure paternal engagement as an outcome. This omission is not neutral — it actively defaults to mothers as sole carers, inflates maternal burden, and misses the most cost-effective intervention point in a child’s life. This submission calls on the Committee to treat father-inclusive practice not as a niche consideration, but as a structural reform opportunity consistent with the Bill’s sustainability objectives.

The Evidence Base: What Australian Research Tells Us

Paternal Engagement as a Protective Factor

Australian and international peer-reviewed research consistently identifies father engagement during the perinatal period as an independently evidenced protective factor against a range of adverse child and family outcomes. Key findings include:

Fletcher, R., St George, J., & Freeman, E. (2011) demonstrated that fathers who receive targeted support during the perinatal period show significantly improved

Submission 808

emotional availability, reduced harsh parenting, and increased sensitivity to infant cues — all documented predictors of secure attachment and reduced developmental vulnerability.

Ramchandani, P. et al. (2013) identified paternal postnatal depression and disengagement as independent predictors of child behavioural and emotional problems at age 3.5, with effects persisting to age 7.
Macdonald, J.A. et al. (Deakin University / Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium) has produced a substantial body of evidence linking early paternal involvement to improved child cognitive development, school readiness, and social competence.
Wynter, K. et al. (Monash University) found that fathers in the perinatal period experience significant unmet mental health need, with 1 in 10 experiencing clinically significant anxiety and depression — conditions that, when unsupported, increase DFV risk and reduce parenting quality.
The SMS4dads program (University of Newcastle, A/Prof Richard Fletcher) demonstrated that low-cost, targeted digital outreach to fathers in the perinatal period is feasible, acceptable, and effective at increasing paternal engagement and reducing isolation — including among hard-to-reach groups such as young fathers and fathers in regional and remote communities.

Father Engagement and DFV Prevention

As noted in the ACaFSA submission, engaged fathers are a documented buffer against domestic and family violence risk. The evidence is direct: excluding fathers from perinatal support planning increases paternal isolation — a key precursor to coercive control — and removes a critical safety monitoring touchpoint for mothers and infants. Conversely, early engagement of fathers through structured, gender-transformative programs reduces rigid adherence to harmful masculine norms, increases help-seeking, and strengthens the protective parenting environment for both mothers and children (Dads Group program data, 2024–2026; Our Watch, Respectful Relationships frameworks).

The NDIS planning framework currently has no mechanism to assess paternal DFV risk, paternal mental health, or paternal caregiving capacity. Where families caring for children with disability are twice as likely to experience family and domestic violence (Octoman et al., 2022), this omission represents a significant child safety gap.

Theory of Change: The Father-Inclusive Perinatal Pathway Dads Group’s theory of change is grounded in a family systems model: when fathers are identified, engaged, and supported as active caregiving partners from the perinatal period, the benefits compound across the family system.

For children:

Reduced developmental vulnerability through increased parental capacity and emotional availability
More stable, secure attachment environments — the foundational protective factor against later disability-associated behavioural and mental health conditions
Greater likelihood of early identification of developmental delay, as engaged fathers are more likely to notice and act on early warning signs
Improved participation in early childhood intervention — children whose fathers are engaged show better therapy attendance and generalisation of skills to home environments

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Reduced exposure to DFV — a significant cause of acquired disability, trauma, and developmental disruption

For mothers:

Reduced carer burden — the single most reported driver of maternal mental health deterioration and NDIS plan escalation
Improved personal safety where paternal engagement is structured and supported through gender-transformative frameworks
Greater capacity to participate in ECI planning, therapy, and advocacy when caregiving is genuinely shared
Reduced isolation — fathers’ engagement in community-based programs creates broader social connection for the whole family

For fathers:

Reduction in unmet mental health need during a period of heightened vulnerability
Increased paternal identity and confidence, reducing the risk of disengagement and isolation
Greater workforce participation and community connection, reducing downstream reliance on crisis and mental health services
Specific benefits for fathers in rural, remote, First Nations, and CALD communities — groups where paternal isolation is most acute and where Dads Group has demonstrated program reach

The critical insight is that the perinatal period — the first 2,000 days — is not just the highest-impact intervention window for children. It is also the highest-impact window to engage fathers. Dads Group program data (2024–2026) from hundreds of sessions across metropolitan and regional Australia consistently shows that fathers who engage during this period maintain that engagement, build broader community capacity, and become ambassadors for help-seeking in their communities.

Implications for the Bill

Planning and Assessment Processes

The ACaFSA submission correctly identifies that NDIS planning frameworks default to mothers as the sole carer regardless of family circumstance. Dads Group underscores that this is not simply an equity issue — it is a child safety and sustainability issue. Plans built on a single-carer assumption will systematically overload that carer, increasing the probability of plan escalation, crisis, and poorer child outcomes.

The Bill’s emphasis on functional capacity assessment must be extended to assess the functional capacity of the family system — not just the child. This means:

Planning conversations that explicitly include paternal caregiving capacity, availability, and support needs
Assessment tools that are co-designed to identify both maternal and paternal capacity, rather than defaulting to one primary carer
Recognition that unsupported fathers — particularly those experiencing perinatal mental health difficulties — represent a risk factor, not a neutral variable, in child safety planning

Community Participation Supports

Submission 808

The ACaFSA submission identifies community participation as already critically under resourced within the NDIS. Dads Group adds that father-led peer group participation in natural community settings — the core delivery modality of the Dads Group model — is one of the most cost-effective community participation mechanisms available to the Scheme. It is low cost, high reach, and achieves outcomes across child development, DFV prevention, paternal mental health, and carer burden simultaneously.

Yet father-led community participation is currently unrecognised and unmeasured within NDIS planning. Any reduction in community participation funding that does not explicitly protect this mechanism will deepen the existing gap.

Governance and the Technical Advisory Group

Dads Group supports the ACaFSA recommendation that the Technical Advisory Group include explicit father-inclusive practice representation. We further recommend that the Terms of Reference for the Technical Advisory Group include a standing commitment to:

Baseline measurement of father engagement as a NDIS planning outcome indicator
Reporting on father engagement as part of the NDIA’s annual outcomes framework
Co-design of assessment tools with father-inclusive practice experts to ensure fathers are assessed as caregiving partners, not absences

Recommendations Dads Group makes the following targeted recommendations to the Committee:

Recommendation 1 — Amend planning frameworks to require assessment of paternal caregiving capacity as a standard element of NDIS planning for families with children in the perinatal period and early childhood years.
Recommendation 2 — Ensure that any Functional Capacity Assessment (FCA) tool developed under the Bill is co-designed with father-inclusive practice experts and tested for its ability to capture paternal caregiving capacity and DFV protective factors.
Recommendation 3 — Protect and explicitly recognise father-led peer group participation in natural community settings as a fundable NDIS community participation support, consistent with the evidence base for its developmental, DFV prevention, and carer burden outcomes.
Recommendation 4 — Mandate baseline measurement of father engagement as a NDIS planning outcome indicator within the Technical Advisory Group’s Terms of Reference and the NDIA’s annual outcomes reporting framework.
Recommendation 5 — Include father-inclusive practice expertise in the composition of the Technical Advisory Group established under the Bill.
Recommendation 6 — Commission a review of NDIS planning data to determine the proportion of plans in which fathers are identified as active caregivers, and use this as a baseline for future reporting.

Conclusion The NDIS Bill 2026 represents a critical opportunity to secure the long-term sustainability and equity of Australia’s disability support system. Dads Group submits that father-inclusive practice in the perinatal period is not a peripheral consideration — it is a high-leverage, evidence-backed, cost-effective mechanism for reducing developmental vulnerability, preventing DFV, supporting maternal wellbeing, and building family capacity from the ground up.

Submission 808

A sustainable NDIS that ignores fathers ignores half the parenting equation. The first 2,000 days are the most important investment window in a child’s life. Father-inclusive practice must be part of how the NDIS invests in those days.

Dads Group endorses in full the submission of the Australian Child and Family Supports Alliance (ACaFSA) and stands ready to provide further evidence, program data, or expert testimony to the Committee.

Contact

Thomas Docking | Founder & CEO, Dads Group