Pause Slough is celebrating two years of changing the lives of some of the area’s most vulnerable women.
The innovative programme, which is a national initiative, is run locally by Slough Children’s Services Trust and works to support women who have experienced – or are at risk of experiencing – repeated pregnancies that result in children needing to be taken into care.
Pause Slough aims to break this cycle by giving women a programme of support, where they get the opportunity to tackle previous patterns of behaviour, and develop new skills, empowering them to create a more positive future. In doing so, it can help prevent the damaging consequences to them and their children of being taken into care. The broader impact is that Pause Slough saves a significant amount of public money through the avoidance of care costs that would have been required had previously entrenched patterns continued.
Staff from the Trust, along with women currently on the programme, as well as past graduates and local partners gathered at the Curve, in Slough, on Tuesday to celebrate the programme’s second anniversary with tea and cake.
Harpreet Kaur, the Slough Pause lead, said: “This is a really important day for Pause Slough and Slough Children’s Services Trust. It marks two years of helping to empower vulnerable women by working together to meet their specific needs. We’ve had so much positive feedback from those who are on the programme and the outcomes speak for themselves – we’ve seen women who’ve gone back to education and gone on to be employed. Pause is about working to deliver better futures.”
Becky, a recent graduate of the Pause Slough programme, said: “18 months ago, when I started with Pause, I would never have thought I’d be going back to college and holding down a job. I’ve had so much wonderful support, I’ve made some good friends and am able to trust people again. I’m also now a mentor to some of the new people on the programme which I really enjoy.”
Pause Slough is part of a national Pause Programme that currently operates in 24 Pause Practices, operating in 31 local authorities.