Care-proceedings - Pause – Creating Space for Change

Every woman working with Pause has experience of care proceedings and we know proceedings can be traumatic for everyone involved. Where care proceedings are necessary, we want to see a system that is more trauma-informed and solution focused.

Our publications

Set up to fail (2022)

This report reveals how the disconnect between expert witness report recommendations made during care proceedings and the availability of local mental health services is setting women up to fail.

Our podcast episodes

Set up to fail

This episode discusses challenges with the current system of expert witness assessments at care proceedings and looks at why women regularly receive no follow up support.

Care-proceedings series

This mini-series, created in partnership with Mutual Ventures, charts the journey through care proceedings through the eyes of women who have first-hand experience of the family justice system. Each episode is a conversation between Claire, Vanessa, and Hannah, three Pause graduates.

Other resources

Women’s journey maps and report (2024)

This report was produced by Mutual Ventures, with input from Pause graduates about their lived experience of care proceedings. The report highlights the profound and lasting impacts of delayed care proceedings on parents, children, and young people.

Response to interpreting and translation services in the courts (2024)

Pause submitted written evidence to the House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry, calling for more consistent, accessible and adequately resourced interpreting and translation services in family courts to ensure non-English-speaking parents fully understand and engage with life-changing legal proceedings.