PAUSE Service

Pause works with women who have experienced, or are at risk of, repeat removals of children from their care. Through an intense programme of support, it aims to break this cycle and give women the opportunity to reflect, tackle destructive patterns of behaviour, and to develop new skills and responses that can help them create a more positive future. The poem below was written by the award-winning Simon Armitage, based on the experience of one of the women we have worked with in Hull.

Sophie Humphreys Chief Exec

The Pause story so far

Although the initial pilot began in 2013, the thinking behind Pause goes back much further, as you can see from the timeline. Since then, we have continued to grow, not just in the number of Practices, but also in our knowledge and understanding of the challenges. From our intensive induction programme to the ongoing support from our National Practice Leads, we ensure that the knowledge is shared across Pause.

Why Pause

Every local authority has a group of women who have numerous short interval pregnancies that result in the removal of their children into care. This phenomenon is acknowledged but remains currently un-challenged on a wide scale.

Pause aims to break this cycle by intervening at a point when the women have no children in their care, creating a space in which women are supported to reflect and develop new skills and responses. More

Pause Model

Pause is an innovative, dynamic and creative solution designed to address the needs of women who have, or are at risk of, multiple children being removed from their care.

It offers an intense programme of therapeutic, practical and behavioural support through an integrated model. Each woman has an individual programme designed around their needs looking at the various elements of their system.More