By Jules Hillier, Chief Executive
I’ve been CEO of Pause for nine years this week, and I’ve been reflecting on how much has changed in that time and what it means as I look towards the next 12 months. That my workiversary coincides with the start of the new year when I’m supposed to be writing a thoughtful blog is just good planning on my part, obviously.
I hadn’t been at Pause long before I realised that we needed to think carefully about how to evolve from being an organisation that simply does something brilliant to one that learns from the brilliant thing it does and uses that insight to try and influence wider change. At that time, Pause was one of only a small number of organisations and individuals making a real difference to women who had experienced the repeated removal of children from their care. As we grew, quickly, and I spoke to more women with experience of the programme and practitioners doing the work, the need to build our skills and capacity to campaign and influence became very clear.
Now, supporting women to share their experiences and use their voices to campaign for change is a major part of our strategy, and I’m having many conversations with people about the experiences of parents and how they can be considered alongside other family needs. We’re getting the hang of this work now, which is good because this year sees real opportunities for us to campaign for specific changes for which we are uniquely placed to fight (a lesson well taught to us by Clare Laxton during her time at Pause).
The first opportunity of 2026 will likely come next week, when Pause’s two report stage amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill are debated in the House of Lords. Tabled late last year by Baroness Barran, both amendments seek to break the cycle of repeat removals of children into care by establishing nationwide post-removal support for parents and collect data on recurrent care proceedings.
You can see just how many other organisations are on board with our campaigns by the number of logos on the briefing. What I didn’t realise as we evolved, but really do now, is just how much success would rely on us building relationships with other people in the sector doing this work. That’s what’s changed more than anything for us, I think; the relationships we’ve built with others who share our values and our desire for change, even as they view them through a different lens.
So, I’ve been mulling over what has been most crucial in our development as I reflect on the past and look to the future (with a pit stop in what exactly has been going on this week). For me, those are:
- Brilliant people, doing great work, listening and learning carefully as they do it.
- Brave women prepared to make major changes in their lives and use their experience to make things better for others coming up behind them.
- Funders prepared to take risks, understand organisations and flex to meet the real needs of charities as they evolve.
- Relationships with other great people doing vital work that bring different perspectives to the same problem (looking at you Adoption UK, Fostering Network, Family Rights Group, Kinship, Research in Practice and dozens of others).
At a time when a lot of our reflections about the sector and our work focus on the sheer grind of the difficult environment we’re experiencing, I feel very lucky to take all four of those things into the next 12 months with me and that makes me very hopeful indeed.
