Partnership to support vulnerable women in Dorset

A project which will help vulnerable women in Dorset has come one step closer to realisation.

Dorset Council has appointed BCHA, a charitable housing association based in the south west, to lead the Pause Programme.

Pause is a nationally evaluated programme which works with women who have experienced, or are at risk of, repeated pregnancies that result in their children needing to be removed from their care.

The programme aims to give women the opportunity to pause and take control of their lives, breaking a destructive cycle that causes both them and their children deep trauma. It supports them to develop new skills and responses that can help them create a more positive future.

Councillor Andrew Parry, Portfolio Holder for Children, Education, Skills and Early Help, said: ‘No one wants to see children being taken away from their mother, far from it, we do all we can to support families to stay together.

‘We’ve seen the results of the Pause Programme from other areas and it is clear it works so I am hopeful that it will help to keep Dorset children with their mothers in future, which will also help improve outcomes for those children.’

Children who are removed into care are more likely to experience outcomes poorer than their peers including:

• poorer educational results;
• higher rates of criminality;
• sexual/criminal exploitation; substance misuse;
• suicide;
• poor mental health;
• become parents at a younger age and repeat the cycles of children into care.

The Pause Programme is delivered in local areas by Pause Practices, which are partnerships with local authorities or voluntary sector organisations and are supported by the Pause national team. A standard Pause Practice supports up to 24 women at one time.

Toby Mallowan, Head of Homelessness, Health & Wellbeing BCHA, said:

‘BCHA is very excited to have been awarded the Pause Project for Dorset. We are committed to supporting communities across Dorset and this project helps us focus on mothers who have experienced, and are living with, trauma.’

The Pause Programme in Dorset will officially launch in early 2023. For more information on the programme visit pause.org.uk