Operation Encompass

The school is now engaged in ‘Operation Encompass’.

Operation Encompass is an early intervention partnership between Police and Schools aimed at supporting children who are impacted by domestic abuse. It is designed to help schools meet the needs of children after the Police have attended a domestic incident at their home. At its heart is the simple sharing of information between Police and Schools.

If the Police attend a Domestic Abuse incident, and one of our pupils is present, they will notify our school, usually at the start of the next working day. In practice this is a simple and short phone call, to a member of the school safeguarding team. This will enable our safeguarding team to provide appropriate and timely support for a child or young person who may have experienced trauma. Operation Encompass is about putting the needs of children first and providing school staff with the information we need to support these children.

As you are probably aware, children experiencing domestic abuse are negatively impacted by this exposure. Domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience and can lead to emotional, physical and psychological harm. Operation Encompass aims to mitigate this harm by enabling the provision of immediate support. This rapid provision of support within the school environment means children are better safeguarded against the short, medium and long term effects of domestic abuse.

All Operation Encompass information is shared with school staff on a strictly need to know basis. This is the same as with existing child protection information.

Operation Encompass is being delivered jointly between the DE, DOJ, the EA’s Child Protection Support Service and the PSNI. If you have any queries about Operation Encompass, please speak to our DT, Mrs Acheson or DDT, Mrs Blair.

Further information:

• You also may wish to visit Operation Encompass website for more background information.
• On this link one of the teachers involved in the pilot talks about her experience via the PSNI website.
• Read more about the project on BBC News NI coverage.
• The following segment from the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show features Operation Encompass. *Please note this video contains content about domestic violence and abuse that some people may find upsetting.