Domestic abuse in Telford in the spotlight as tendering process begins for support service
A competitive tender process has started to provide a refreshed domestic abuse specialist support service in Telford, a committee will hear this week.
Telford & Wrekin Council is updating its Domestic Abuse Strategy and officials have already agreed to include Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) prevention work which includes challenging men to look at their own behaviour.
A report to a meeting of the council’s communities scrutiny committee on Thursday (October 2) says a series of community events will be organised for the White Ribbon ’16 Days of Action’ in November and December this year, supported by a social media campaign.
White Ribbon is an initiative engaging men and boys to prevent violence against women and girls.
The report says domestic abuse is a “significant issue in our communities given the impact on individuals and families affected, especially children and young people”.
“It is well known that domestic abuse is an adverse childhood experience which can have life-long effects and that it also has the potential to cause trauma in adults.”
The report from Helen Onions, the council’s director of public health, says that “following a successful event in March 2025 to highlight local good practice, it has been agreed that Violence Against Women and Girls prevention work will be incorporated into a refreshed Telford and Wrekin Domestic Abuse Strategy”.
“Contracts will be awarded early in 2026, following a competitive tendering process for the provision of a domestic abuse specialist support service,” the report reads.
A part-time temporary VAWG prevention lead has been recruited to include the White Ribbon campaign.
The report also says the current contract for the local domestic abuse service expires in May 2026 and a competitive tender process has commenced.
Safe accommodation provided by the service will come in in-house to Telford & Wrekin Council’s housing solutions team.
The service also has a programme aimed at changing the behaviour of perpetrators but the committee will hear that this will be tendered as a separate lot because of different timescales and funding sources.
The council is funded this year to deliver these duties through the £506,000 Domestic Abuse Grant from the Government plus £72,000 from its own budgets.
“The Domestic Abuse Grant cannot be used to fund perpetrator behaviour change programmes therefore funding of £109,000 from council one-off resources is being utilised in 2025/26 to fund this activity,” the report adds.
Telford and Wrekin has a Domestic Abuse Forum which is a network of more than 50 organisations and individuals representing local communities.
Work is ongoing in the forum to strengthen connections with the local interfaith council and other faith organisations and the LGBTQ+ community, the scrutiny committee will be told.
