House rules

When posting to the Forum, please bear in mind that this is a site for professionals and our purpose is to advise, help and support each other. Remember that we are discussing real life and real people: our work affects individuals.

Posting

• To save everyone's time, please try to give your posts specific, relevant titles.
• Don't post a thread in more than one forum area.
• Debates are great as long as we all respect each other's opinions – but please don't be deliberately inflammatory or your post may get deleted.
• If you ask for help and get it, please remember to say thank you!

Responding

• If you respond to a thread, please be positive and constructive, and stay on the topic.
• If you post a document or picture, make sure it's no bigger than 2Mb.

Etiquette

All members should avoid:

• personal attacks made on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, sexuality or any other personal characteristic
• excessive profanity
• threats or incitements to violence
• duplication
• irrelevant information.

Moderation

To encourage quick feedback and lively discussion, our policy is to let you contribute directly to the site, rather than our web editor approving your contributions. Please contact the Fatherhood Institute using the Report buttons if you see a group, an individual, or a discussion that you feel is inappropriate to Dads Included.

Legal terms

This legal notice applies to the entire contents of the website under the domain name www.dadsincluded.org  (“website”) and to any correspondence by email between us and you. Please read these terms carefully before using the website. Using the website indicates that you accept these terms regardless of whether or not you choose to register with us. If you do not accept these terms, do not use the website. This notice is issued by the Fatherhood Institute.

1. Introduction
1.1 You may access some areas of the website without registering your details with us. Certain areas of the website are only open to you if you register.
1.2 By accessing any part of the website, you shall be deemed to have accepted this legal notice in full. If you do not accept this legal notice in full, you must leave the website immediately.
1.3 The Fatherhood Institute may revise this legal notice at any time by updating this posting. You should check the website from time to time to review the then current legal notice, because it is binding on you. Certain provisions of this legal notice may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages at the website.
2. Participation rules
2.1 In order to participate in and contribute to the website you will be required to register with us. Any personal information supplied to the Fatherhood Institute as part of this registration process and/or any other interaction with the Fatherhood Institute will be collected, stored and used in accordance with our Privacy policy.
2.2 The website is an online learning community, bringing professionals working in children's, family and health services together in one place where they can:
2.2.1 locate, store, upload, comment on and share resources; and
2.2.2 connect, build relationships, ask questions and seek advice from other professionals in the field.
2.3 In the course of using the website, you agree to use the website in accordance with the following rules:
2.3.1 be respectful of other users of the website;
2.3.2 stay on topic and do not upload content that is unrelated to the purpose of the website;
2.3.3 do not post or transmit to or from the website any material:
2.3.3.1. that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience; or
2.3.3.2. for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals; or
2.3.3.3. which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any third party, in any country in the world; or
2.3.3.4. which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data);
2.3.4 do not misuse the website (including, without limitation, by hacking);
2.3.5 do not use language that is offensive, inflammatory or provocative (this includes swearing and obscene or vulgar comments);
2.3.6 do not break the law (this includes libel, condoning illegal activity and contempt of court);
2.3.7 please do not post personal information – addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details – relating either to you or other individuals;
2.3.8 do not register more than one user account per person;
2.3.9 do not impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or an organisation. Do not attempt to log on using another user’s account;
2.3.10 please provide truthful and accurate submissions, backing up your argument or view with evidence where possible;
2.3.11 do not make any commercial endorsement or promotion of any product, service or publication;
2.3.12 do not post comments in a language other than English;
2.3.13 please provide us with your full name and an up-to-date contact email or postal address so that we can contact you if necessary;
2.3.14 if you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent’s or guardian’s permission before participating. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate or provide us with personal information.
2.4 The Fatherhood Institute shall fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing the Fatherhood Institute to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material in breach of this clause 2.
3. Contributions to the website
3.1 You confirm that you are the author/artist of all of your postings, articles and pictures and they are your original work. Where you are not the author/artist of all, or of any part, of your postings, articles and/or pictures, you should always provide a full citation crediting the original author/artist of any such posting, article and/or picture or part thereof.
3.2 You own the copyright in your postings, articles and pictures, but you also agree to grant the Fatherhood Institute a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive right and licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any such work worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content and for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you do not wish to grant such rights to the Fatherhood Institute, it is suggested that you do not upload to the website.
3.3 You should remember that you are legally responsible for what you upload. By making an upload you undertake to indemnify the Fatherhood Institute against any liability arising from breach of confidentiality or copyright, or any obscene, defamatory, seditious, blasphemous or other actionable statement you may make.
4. Moderation
4.1 The website will be moderated by the Fatherhood Institute’s communications team (“Moderators”).
4.2 Relevant team representatives of the Fatherhood Institute intend to regularly visit the forum discussions and, where appropriate, submit posts to encourage discussion.
4.3 The Moderators always aim to be fair and objective and are concerned with the quality of the discussion not the interests of one individual, group or idea over another.
4.4 Posts will go live instantly.
4.5 If at any time the Fatherhood Institute receives a complaint that a contribution breaches any of the rules set out in these terms and conditions, the Moderators:
4.5.1 shall immediately delete the contribution from the website;
4.5.2 shall check the contribution for compliance with these terms and conditions;
4.5.3 shall send an email to the author of the contribution informing it why the contribution has been deleted; and
4.5.4 may request that the author of the contribution resubmits the contribution to the website, so that such contribution complies with these terms and conditions.
4.6 Direct communication between the participants and the Moderators can take place via email. The Moderators’ email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
4.7 The Fatherhood Institute reserves the right to take action against any user account, at any time, for any reason.
4.8 Forum spaces are readable at all times and you can submit a post at any time.
5. Intellectual property
5.1 Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in all material on the website (including without limitation photographs and graphical images and excluding contributions made to the website by users) are owned by the Fatherhood Institute or its licensors. For the purposes of this legal notice, any use of extracts from the website other than in accordance with clause 5.1 for any purpose is prohibited. If you breach any of the terms in this legal notice, your permission to use the website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed extracts from the website.
5.2 You are permitted to print and download extracts from the website in which the Fatherhood Institute or its licensors own the intellectual property rights for your own use on the following basis:
5.2.1 No documents or related graphics on the website are modified in any way;
5.2.2 No graphics on the website are used separately from the corresponding text; and
5.2.3 The Fatherhood Institute’s copyright and trade mark notices and this permission notice appear in all copies.
6. Service access
6.1 While the Fatherhood Institute endeavours to ensure that the website is normally available 24 hours a day, the Fatherhood Institute shall not be liable if for any reason the website is unavailable at any time or for any period.
6.2 Access to the website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond the Fatherhood Institute’s control.
7. Links to and from other websites
7.1 Links to third-party websites on the website are provided solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave the website. The Fatherhood Institute has not reviewed all of these third-party websites and does not control and is not responsible for these websites or their content or availability. The Fatherhood Institute therefore does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any material found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third-party websites linked to the website, you do so entirely at your own risk.
7.2 The Fatherhood Institute encourages users to establish hypertext links to the website. You do not have to ask permission to link directly to pages on the website. We do not object to you linking directly to our information. However, we do not permit the use of our logos as promotional or hypertext objects.
8. Registration
8.1 Each registration is for a single user only. The Fatherhood Institute does not permit you to share your user name and password with any other person nor with multiple users on a network.
8.2 Responsibility for the security of any passwords issued rests with you.
9. Disclaimer
9.1 Although the Fatherhood Institute endeavours to ensure that the information on the website is correct, the Fatherhood Institute does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the material on the website. The Fatherhood Institute may make changes to the material on the website, or to the products and prices described in it, at any time without notice. The material on the website may be out of date, and the Fatherhood Institute makes no commitment to update such material.
9.2 The material on the website is provided “as is”, without any conditions, warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the Fatherhood Institute provides you with the website on the basis that the Fatherhood Institute excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill) which, but for this legal notice, might have effect in relation to the website.
10. Liability
10.1 The Fatherhood Institute, any other party (whether or not involved in creating, producing, maintaining or delivering the website), and any of the Fatherhood Institute’s group companies and the officers, directors, employees, shareholders or agents of any of them, exclude all liability and responsibility for any amount or kind of loss or damage that may result to you or a third party (including without limitation, any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damages, or any loss of income, profits, goodwill, data, contracts, use of money, or loss or damages arising from or connected in any way to business interruption, and whether in tort (including, without limitation, negligence), contract or otherwise) in connection with the website in any way or in connection with the use, inability to use or the results of use of the website, any websites linked to the website or the material on such websites, including but not limited to loss or damage due to viruses that may infect your computer equipment, software, data or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing the website or your downloading of any material from the website or any websites linked to the website.
10.2 Nothing in this legal notice shall exclude or limit the Fatherhood Institute’s liability for:
10.2.1 death or personal injury caused by negligence; or
10.2.2 fraud; or
10.2.3 misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter; or
10.2.4 any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
10.3 If your use of material on the website results in the need for servicing, repair or correction of equipment, software or data, you assume all costs thereof.
11. Governing law and jurisdiction
This legal notice shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this legal notice shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.