The History of PACT
- 1911 - 2011
A century of building and strengthening families
PACT is now one of the UK’s leading charities in its field, providing a helping hand to vulnerable families through community projects across the Thames Valley and creating new families though fostering and adoption in London and Southern England.
PACT began building and strengthening families100 years ago when the then Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Francis Paget, held a passion to address the vulnerabilities of needy families living in the Oxford Diocesan area in 1910.
He shared his concerns with other like-minded people to establish an organisation that would provide guidance and protection for children of tender years.
He saw the need as “...an imperative and the evil so appalling” in the society of which he was part in 1910, that action was essential.
With the support of his Diocesan colleagues, Bishop Paget (pictured) established the Diocesan Council for Prevention and Rescue Work in 1911.
Lord Stanmore, the son of Lord Aberdeen, Prime Minister at the time of the Crimean War, provided £100 to enable the Council to start its work.
The work begins
A rescue worker, Miss Sharpe, was immediately appointed by the Diocesan Council and she began visiting unmarried mothers to help them build a better life for their children.
Her efforts quickly demonstrated how important and widespread family issues were and a second worker joined the team, thereby upgrading Miss Sharpe to a Diocesan Worker
She recorded in her first report that she had visited 52 parishes, many of them on her bicycle, within the first six months. She helped 97 women and girls, by placing some in maternity homes, houses of mercy and refuges.
Some 24 had been visited in their own home and 30 visited though links with the Mothers’ Union.
The Council’s remit identified the importance of education and community support if families were to escape poverty and uphold Christian family values.
Parents, teachers and youth leaders were all involved in ensuring that social well-being might be achieved. Even in those early years the organisation worked in partnership with other agencies, as it still does today.
In 1960, the 50th annual report acknowledged the immense input from the Council of pastoral and educational work through the counties of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
The report recognised that some members “needed personal help, other than in financial terms, if they are to achieve satisfying personal and family relationships”. Another example of how similar the understanding of family needs was then to how we view it now, 50 years on.
Adoption and fostering
In the early 1960s concern was being highlighted by Council members for the numbers of very young mothers, many under 17, and their need for support for themselves and their children.
The agency had established itself as an Adoption Society in 1953 and began placing babies directly with adoption families.
Charities had long played a key role in providing services not available from the state.
In 1954, 128 children were placed for adoption leading up to the high point in 1969 when 481 placements were made. Thereafter the numbers reduced as society’s understanding of and provision for unsupported mother changed, enabling single parents to have a choice in whether they wanted to parent their own babies.
The 1976 Adoption Act required local authorities to provide their own adoption services and by the mid 1980s the agency had relinquished its placements of babies to the local authorities.
The requirement for placements for children with exceptional needs remained clear and the agency re-organised itself to recruit families for particularly vulnerable children – those who were older, required placements with their siblings, had a disability or came from black and minority ethnic families.
In the late 1990s the agency – by this time known as Parents And Children Together - was registered to approve adopters for children placed from overseas as well as domestic adoption.
In the early 21st century foster carers were recruited to provide homes for a range of children who could not be adopted but needed a permanent family.
The Society house Clark’s Row, Oxford, was founded by Miss Hatch in 1907, later serving as a Remand Home and Probation Hostel before being sold in 1947.
In 1960 the Oxford Moral Welfare Association (the new name of the Council) was preparing to provide a home where rooms and flatlets might be available to unmarried mothers who had their children with them.
The provision of hostel accommodation for young women has continued ever since and presently PACT’s house in Bracknell continues to offer support and guidance to young women and their children.
In 1997 PACT began providing training courses for care sector staff seeking National Vocational Qualifications.
For a number of years large numbers of care staff based in the Thames Valley came through the doors and achieved their qualifications.
In 2010 this service was passed over to West Berkshire Training Consortium, in order that PACT might focus more on developing its community and adoption work.
PACT today
The focus of the charity has remained constant within the Oxford Diocese, to support families and provide services not available locally.
The reputation and experience of the agency has grown over the years, with its stable and committed team of workers.
PACT’s trustees and staff group, now numbering 140, have signed up to the business plan focusing on their work from 2010–2014. The agency has recently rebranded itself and developed a new “building blocks” logo, ensuring it remains accessible and relevant and has identified with an I-Shape framework to define who we are.
I-Shape emphasises individual responsibility for shaping the growth and development of PACT within three contexts: firstly as an organisation, secondly with regard to the workplace in which we work with our colleagues and thirdly in the way we shape the lives of those we work with.
The support of the Oxford Diocese has changed but not wavered over the years. The direct financial input was reduced in the mid-1990s but an annual grant is still provided.
The relationship between the agency and the church is an important element of what PACT is. In keeping with other changes in society, the agency no longer requires its staff to be active church attendees, although we still hold as important the basic tenets of the Christian faith within all service provision.
PACT’s trustees, staff and volunteers look forward with anticipation and excitement to celebrating its 100th year in 2011.
The vision from Bishop Francis Paget which formed the inspiration of PACT’s origins is now positively carried forward by the present Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard.