Pause Creating Space for Change

Who we are

Pause works alongside women at risk of having children removed from their care, to improve their lives and transform the services and systems that affect them. Our vision is a society where women who experience the removal of children into care are given the best possible support, so that it never happens more than once.

We work towards this vision in three ways:  

We offer targeted support to women at the highest risk through two interventions:

• The Pause core programme, which works with women who have already experienced the removal of one or more children from their care;
• The REACH programme, which offers preventative support to care-experienced young women as they transition out of care. 

We learn from the women we work with, using their experiences to challenge systems so that they better meet the needs of families at risk of the removal of children into care. 

We partner with local authorities and other organisations to create change locally through our tailored training and consultancy offer. 

Pause was created because people wanted to do things differently. That spirit of innovation and collaboration remains at the heart of our work. We use our learnings to test new ways of working, such as My Mind and Me, a psycho-educative group programme designed to help women better understand and regulate their emotions. 

We know we make the biggest difference by listening to women and working in partnership with others. Together, we help spark change across the system, even in areas without a Pause Practice.

Our culture and values

Pause wants all its employees to feel valued, supported and enabled to balance their work with everything else that is important to them. We want to be sure that everyone has what they need to do their job well, that they are clear about their areas of responsibility, and that they are trusted and empowered to do their jobs in a way which works for them.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

We’re committed to playing our part in dismantling racism that is present both within and outside Pause.  

We know that our leadership, staff and the women on the Pause Programme don’t always reflect the communities in which we live and work, or the local population of looked after children. This contributes to perpetuating racism and discrimination.  

We are working towards becoming an anti-racist organisation. Our four key priorities are:

1. To acknowledge the structural racism that exists in Pause and commit to supporting those who experience it. 
    
2. To be explicit and transparent in our rejection of racism and challenge it wherever we find it.
    
3. To create a more diverse organisation and encourage people from Black and Brown communities to become part of and develop within the Pause network.
    
4. To understand more about racism in Pause and the communities we support, including children who have been removed into care. We are curious to know more about why our population lacks diversity, and to support individual Practices to better understand their area.