See answers to previous information requests

Teenage relationship abuse. There is no single or shared definition of this type of harm for children under the age of 16, and as such it can often be misunderstood and or go unidentified by professionals who work with children and young people.
For the purposes of this FOI, we are interested in better understanding local authority provision for teenagers (aged 13-18) who both experience and perpetrate behaviours generally recognised as domestic abuse within the context of their own romantic and sexual relationships. These behaviours include physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, coercive or controlling behaviour, economic abuse, or other forms of psychological or emotional harm.
For young people aged 16-17, such behaviours fall within the statutory definition of domestic abuse. Please answer the following questions in relation to this characterisation of teenage relationship abuse.

1. Does your local authority have a policy, protocol or written guidance on how to respond to children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse within their own relationships? If yes, please provide further detail, including any relevant documents, and specify which age group it applies to (under 16s, or ages 16-17).
The Domestic Abuse Strategy covers young people experiencing domestic abuse. Wokingham Domestic Abuse Strategy 2025-2028.pdf
Our local Safeguarding Partnership Procedure Manual also has the following chapter on Domestic Abuse, which provides relevant information about domestic abuse in teenage relationships.

2. Do you collect data on the number of young people aged 16 or 17 who have experienced domestic abuse within their own relationships? If yes, please provide this data.
We collect data on the number of young people (as victims and perpetrators) who are aged 16 or 17 and are assessed as being at high risk of harm within our Marac data. Our commissioned domestic abuse support service capture data on the number of young people referred for support.

3. Do you collect data on the number of young people aged 13-16 who have experienced domestic abuse within their own relationships? If yes, please provide this data.
Data is collected on the number of young people aged 13-16 who are referred to the commissioned domestic abuse service for support, however this is not broken down as to whether the help is necessary as a result of living with domestic abuse perpetrated by the adults in the household or in their own relationship.

4. Do you commission any dedicated or specialist support services primarily for young people who have experienced domestic abuse within their own relationships?
If yes:
a) Please describe what the service does (e.g. advocacy support, specialist or trauma-informed counselling, one-to-one or group work with young people on issues such as healthy relationships and boundaries, targeted support for carers or parents, preventative or awareness raising initiatives, helplines, etc.): Support is commissioned within the wider domestic abuse support service. This includes support for children and young people as victims through advocacy, 1:1 support and healthy relationships. Support for those perpetrating the abuse is through healthy relationships and 1:1 support. A helpline is also available for individuals and practitioners. Support is also available through other non-commissioned domestic abuse services, including ones who are grant funding supported for one off programmes.
b) What age group(s) does it work with? (13-16, 16 & 17s, all young people under 18, young people until their 18th birthday with the option of transitional support): Support is available for children, young people and adults
c) How many children has the service supported in the last financial year (25/26): The commissioned service has supported 95 children in 2025/26 (all ages). In addition many more have been supported through other domestic abuse services, but data is awaited for this time period.
d) How many children were on the waiting list to get support from this service in the last financial year (25/26): The current waiting list for all CYP support is 80 (all ages).

5. Does your local authority commission any dedicated support services for young people who are perpetrating domestic abuse within their own relationships: Yes within the main domestic abuse support service contract.
If yes:
a) Please describe what the service does (e.g. one-to-one or group work with young people on issues such as healthy relationships and boundaries, targeted support for carers or parents, preventative or awareness raising initiatives, helplines, etc.): One to one support with young people on healthy relationships and boundaries as well as the helpline is available through our commissioned domestic abuse service. Support is also available as part of a county wider provision for child to parent abuse where this criteria is met.
b) What age group(s) does it work with (13-16, 16 & 17s, all young people under 18, young people until their 18th birthday with the option of transitional support): All young people, with a group based programme also available for over 18 year olds.
c) How many children has the service supported in the last financial year (25/26): Information is not split to detail the number of children and young people accessing help for their own behaviour as included in the total number of children and young people referred for support
d) How many children were on the waiting list to get support from this service in the last financial year (25/26): As above

6. Young people experiencing or perpetrating domestic abuse within their own relationships may be identified by or referred to local authority commissioned services responding to other safeguarding concerns or harm types. Is this a common occurrence within your local authority: Yes and we encourage referrals to our commissioned domestic abuse service for this type of support.
If yes, please provide any further detail you can about:
a) Which services these young people are most commonly identified within or referred to (e.g. child sexual abuse support services, mental health and emotional wellbeing services, child exploitation support services, domestic abuse support services for adults or families including refuges, etc.): Domestic abuse support services
b) Whether, in your professional opinion, you think these services meet the specific needs of these young people? Whilst our primary research interest is on the issue of teenage relationship abuse, we recognise that this harm type is situated within a wider context in which children and young people of any age are legally recognised as victims of domestic abuse under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, when they are either victims themselves, or witnesses of, domestic abuse by a parent or someone with parental responsibility: The domestic abuse support service provide support for children and young people, whether that be as a victim/ perpetrator within their own households or within their own intimate relationships. We would acknowledge though that the number of CYP referred for support is far less than the numbers experiencing domestic abuse.

7. Does your local authority commission any dedicated support services for children and young people (of any age) who are legally classified as victims of domestic abuse in a family context? If yes, please detail what the service does, including whether it provides support to children and young people only, or works with the family. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with local authority commissioners, practitioners or professionals with specific expertise on the issue of teenage relationship abuse to explore the issues raised in this FOI request in more detail.
Yes within our domestic abuse support service contract. The contract covers helpline, support for adult victim-survivors of domestic abuse, support for children and young people and behavioural change programmes for perpetrators. In addition the service delivers multi agency training on the Impact of Domestic Abuse on Children as well as Working with Perpetrators .