The Communities Scrutiny Committee of Telford and Wrekin Council is scheduled to meet on 2 October 2025 to discuss the Domestic Abuse Strategy, and to review the committee's work programme.

Domestic Abuse Strategy and Violence Against Women & Girls

The committee is scheduled to receive an update on the Domestic Abuse Strategy, to encompass the Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) prevention agenda and proposed actions.

According to the Communities Scrutiny DAVAWG Report, the Telford & Wrekin Domestic Abuse Strategy 2023-2025 was approved by the cabinet in February 2023. Governance and oversight of strategy implementation is provided by the Telford & Wrekin Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board (DALP). A local multi-agency Domestic Abuse Forum brings together a wide range of partners to develop annual action plans to implement the strategy commitments.

The strategy is structured around four pillars:

• Partnership
• Prevention
• Provision
• Pursuing and Protection

The report lists a number of achievements during the last three years in delivering these commitments under each pillar.

Under the Partnership pillar, the report notes that a Lived Experience Advisory Forum (LEAF) has been established to listen to local survivors, and that a partnership dashboard has been developed to collate accurate evidence and intelligence to better understand the profile of need, performance and outcomes.

Under the Prevention pillar, the report notes that a Community Champions/Workplace Ambassadors Programme recruits and trains people to improve the understanding of domestic abuse across the community, and that the White Ribbon campaign¹ continues to evolve year-on-year, expanding the reach across communities, and providing opportunity for men to challenge behaviours.

Under the Provision pillar, the report highlights that an integrated Domestic Abuse Service was commissioned and commenced in June 2023, comprising of Specialist Support, Single Point of Contact (SPOC), Specialist Support for Children and Young People and Safe Accommodation.

Under the Pursuing and Protection pillar, the report notes that joined up processes are in place to support individuals and families through criminal justice pathways and the number of victims engaged in court proceedings and civil remedies has increased significantly.

The report also notes that following a successful stakeholder event in March 2025 to highlight local good practice, it has been agreed that Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) prevention work will be incorporated into a refreshed Telford & Wrekin Domestic Abuse Strategy, and that a part-time temporary VAWG Prevention lead has been recruited to lead on this work and the White Ribbon campaign.

The current contract for the local Domestic Abuse Service expires in May 2026 and a competitive tender process has commenced. The safe accommodation element of the contract will come in-house to Telford & Wrekin Council's Housing Solutions Team. The perpetrator behaviour change programme will be tendered as a separate lot because of different timescales and funding sources.

The report states that progress against the delivery of the strategy commitments will be reported to the DALP in January 2026 and a refreshed set of commitments under each of the four pillars agreed for 2026 - 2028 agreed.

A series of community events will be organised by the Council and its partners for the White Ribbon 16 days of Action in November/December 2025, supported by an impactful social media campaign.

Communities Scrutiny DAVAWG Report

Contracts will be awarded early in 2026, following a competitive tendering process, for the provision of a Domestic Abuse Specialist Support Service.

The report notes that there are clear responsibilities and duties for local authorities set out in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021² and this strategy includes local implementation of those expectations.

Work Programme Review

The committee is scheduled to review the updated Work Programme for the Communities Scrutiny Committee, according to the Agenda frontsheet. The Communities Scrutiny Draft Work Programme 2526 contains a table of issues and topics that the committee may consider between now and April 2026.

The Work Programme lists the Community Action Team Programme (CAT) for review in February 2026, in order to assess its effectiveness, accessibility and funding.

Also scheduled for February 2026 is a review of the Telford & Wrekin Skills Strategy, to monitor its effectiveness against the five key principles and its impact on improving skill levels.

The Littering Strategy is listed as a topic to be scheduled, so that the committee can review the measures taken by the council to reduce the amount of litter in the borough including processes for street cleansing and prevention.

The Social Value in Contracts scheme is listed for a workshop, to review corporate social responsibility, and consider the development of a social value impact fund and if this would be beneficial for the community. This item was carried forward from 2024/25.