Dr Ruth Weir and Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint win national award for policing partnership

Dr Ruth Weir, of City St George's Violence & Society research centre, and Katy Barrow-Grint, Deputy Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Constabulary and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University, have won the Police-Research Partnership Award from the Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP).

The award recognises collaborations that bring research and policing together to tackle real-world challenges. For Dr Weir and CC Barrow-Grint, that work has focused on teenage relationship abuse (TRA), an issue they have helped push up the national agenda.

Since 2024, the pair have worked to establish teenage relationship abuse as a distinct issue requiring its own response, rather than one falling between adult domestic abuse and child safeguarding services.

Their work has already influenced policy and practice. Together, they co-founded the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse, a network of more than 60 organisations spanning government, policing, education, academia and the voluntary sector. They have also helped secure the inclusion of teenage relationship abuse in the Government's Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy and contributed to national policing guidance through the National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection.

Alongside this, they have convened roundtables bringing together experts from policing, social care and academia, published research and policy briefs, and hosted a national conference on adolescent domestic abuse at City St George's.

The award was presented at an SEBP ceremony in September following a conference presentation on the partnership's work.

The collaboration was nominated by Aisling Barker from the Cabinet Office, Sophie Jarrett from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire, and Dr Annie Bunce from the Violence, Health and Society consortium (VISION).

Helen Khezrzadeh, Head of Engagement at the SEBP, said:

The standard of nominations this year was excellent, and Dr Weir & DCC Barrow-Grint's work stood out as truly exceptional.

Work like theirs is exactly what will shape the future of evidence-based policing, and it's a privilege to be able to recognise it.

Dr Weir said the award reflected the efforts of a much wider community working to improve understanding of teenage relationship abuse.

"I feel really honoured to have won the award,” she said. “It's not just us, but our colleagues and members of the national working group on TRA that have been collectively trying to drive change and I am really pleased that the work has been recognised nationally."

Dr Weir said one of the partnership's proudest achievements had been securing recognition of teenage relationship abuse within the VAWG strategy, adding that the next challenge is ensuring research leads to practical improvements for young people.

DCC Barrow-Grint added that the partnership had demonstrated the value of long-term collaboration between researchers and practitioners.

"From my perspective it is great working in partnership on long term evidence-based policing projects,” she said. “We have been able to really set out the problems and think through across the system what needs to improve."

The pair are now working to strengthen the evidence base around risk assessment for teenage relationship abuse, with the aim of developing approaches that could inform policing responses nationally.

DCC Barrow-Grint is due to take up the role of Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Constabulary in November.