Pause Creating Space for Change

Who we are

​The number of children in care in the UK is rising every year, and there are many families that have multiple children removed from their care. Across the UK, there are women caught in a traumatic cycle of repeated pregnancies that result in the removal of children. Women who experience this have very often faced significant and multiple traumatic experiences in their own childhoods.

Pause works to improve the lives of women who have had – or are at risk of having – more than one child removed from their care, and the services and systems that affect them.

Pause’s vision is a society where no family experiences the removal of a child more than once. We offer an intensive, trauma-informed model of support. Our 18-month programme is tailored to each individual woman’s needs and their hopes for the future across a variety of areas, from housing to improving relationships with children.

Pause Practices are mostly delivered by partners in local authorities and the charity sector, and are made up of multi-disciplinary teams that benefit from having Practitioners with different areas of professional expertise. The Pause national team - with an office base in London but working throughout the country - provides a wealth of support, training and development to the Practices throughout the process of scoping, mobilisation, induction, ongoing delivery and drive to sustainability.

Pause works. Women who’ve been on the Pause Programme achieve positive outcomes across multiple areas of their lives, including their mental and physical health, relationships with their children, and growth in both confidence and self-esteem.

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.