Supporting children affected by domestic abuse

North Mead Primary Academy participates in Operation Encompass, a national safeguarding partnership between the police and education settings.

Its purpose is to make sure that schools receive timely information when police have attended a domestic abuse incident involving a child connected to the school. This allows the school to provide appropriate support as soon as possible.

How Operation Encompass works

When police attend an incident of domestic abuse and a child is linked to one of the adults involved, information can be shared securely with the child’s school.

The notification is sent to the Designated Safeguarding Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads, before the start of the next school day.

This means school staff can be aware that a child may have experienced something difficult before they arrive at school.

What happens at North Mead?

If North Mead receives an Operation Encompass notification, the information is handled sensitively and confidentially by appropriately trained safeguarding staff.

Depending on the child and the circumstances, support might include:

• a calm and predictable start to the day
• checking in with a trusted adult
• flexibility around learning or routines
• pastoral or emotional support
• additional supervision or reassurance
• monitoring wellbeing
• communication with appropriate professionals
• safeguarding action where further concerns are identified

The response is always based on the individual child’s needs.

The aim is not to question the child about what has happened. It is to ensure that adults understand the context and can respond appropriately.

Confidentiality

Operation Encompass information is safeguarding information and is treated with a high level of confidentiality.

It is shared only with those who need the information in order to safeguard and support the child. Operation Encompass states that records should be managed at child-protection level and in accordance with data-protection requirements.

Why it matters

Children can be significantly affected by experiencing domestic abuse, even where they are not directly involved in an incident.

Early information enables schools to respond more quickly and sensitively and helps ensure that a child does not have to manage the impact of an incident without appropriate support.

Operation Encompass is now on a statutory footing across England and Wales, with police forces required to operate arrangements for notifying schools.

Our Inclusion/Safeguarding Team

Mr Burpitt Safeguarding	Miss Holland Inclusion	Mrs Danesh Mental Health	Mrs Hurst Family Support
Mr Robinson Behaviour	Mrs Meman Attendance	Mrs Hopfl Teaching & Learning	Miss Matthews Operations
Mr Robinson Health and Safety	Mrs Pattni Pastoral	Mrs Reid Pastoral	Mrs Sattar Pastoral
Mrs Adatia Pastoral

If you are worried about the safety or welfare of a child, please speak to a member of staff as soon as possible or email [email protected].

For urgent safeguarding concerns in Leicester, contact Children’s Social Care Duty and Advice on 0116 454 1004.

If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.

Support for families

Domestic abuse can affect adults and children in many different ways.

If you are worried about yourself, your child or another family, you can speak confidentially to a member of North Mead’s safeguarding or pastoral team. We can help you understand what support may be available.

You do not need to wait until a situation reaches crisis point before asking for help.

Find out more

You can find more information about Operation Encompass, including information for families and educational settings, on the official Operation Encompass website.

NM Operation Encompass Parent Letter

Related North Mead Pages

• Safeguarding
• Pastoral Support
• Services and Agencies
• Inclusion