PAUSE 2 Start

PAUSE 2 Start provides trauma-informed help to women who have been supported by the PAUSE programme in Barking and Dagenham; and are moving on to the next stages of re-building and consolidating their lives.

Women who have experienced the removal of children from their care, have little or no access to routine follow-ups for their own unmet needs; nor are they registered in the care of any agency. According to our charity partner PAUSE, there is no statutory obligation on local areas across the UK to deliver post-removal support to birth parents.

In addition, women working with PAUSE have often fallen outside the remit of statutory agencies, rendering them a hidden population to support services. Furthermore, despite the 2002 Adoption and Children Act raising the profile of birth relatives by specifying the need for a post-adoption service, it is believed that in practice, this may be very limited and does not direct agencies to address birth mothers’ rehabilitative needs.

PAUSE 2 Start aims:  

• To provide person-centred support to women who have had more than two children removed from their care, for example because of welfare concerns, neglect, domestic violence or mental health challenges
• To enable women to learn different tools to manage their everyday lives; dispel myths and support them in nurturing themselves
• To provide further opportunities and a safe space for women to come together; to share their experiences, learning and motivate each other
• To act as a starting block for connecting with each other and building support networks
• To provide a space, to share tools to support their wellbeing and peer support
• To assist them develop personal strategies for managing and coping with their mental health and wellbeing

Referrals are through PAUSE only