LSCP Joint Protocol for Operation Encompass

Operation Encompass aims to reduce the short- and long-term impacts of domestic abuse by providing early intervention and support for children who experience Domestic Abuse.

When police are in attendance of domestic abuse incidents where children are directly or indirectly involved, the police will notify the child’s education provider.

Within Lincolnshire, police notifications will be provided to schools and early years settings of which the child is in attendance. Further to this, Children’s Health also receives Operation Encompass notifications.

The notification will be sent via email and will be in the following format:

FIRST NAME, SURNAME, date of birth INSERT DOB, has been identified as being in a household where a Domestic Abuse Incident took place on INSERT FULL DATE, at XX: XX hours. ​

The child was PRESENT / NOT PRESENT at the incident.​

A welfare check on the child WAS/WAS NOT made.

If the officer was concerned for the immediate safeguarding of the child at the incident, this would have been undertaken.  The police have shared this incident with Children's Services as per the protocol already in place. This notification is for information only and to ensure appropriate consideration is taken. The safeguarding admin team and Health staff should follow internal policy and guidelines on the actions required for this notification.

Further information such as who were involved, the location and what occurred will not be shared in the notification email. This is to avoid the initial information gathered by police being misinterpreted or shared unnecessarily.

Any professional who will receive the notifications needs to have completed both the ‘Operation Encompass’ and ‘Children who Experience Domestic Abuse’ training courses (See Lincolnshire Training Offer). Further to this, all professionals in Lincolnshire should be aware of the Operation Encompass process.

For all professionals working with children and families, receiving the Operation Encompass notification does not automatically mean that a safeguarding referral should be made. The following sections explain how each agency should respond. Where receipt of the notification adds to existing concerns or leads to the development of further concerns, the risks should be considered and a decision made as to whether a safeguarding referral is needed (See Safeguarding Referrals Procedure for more information).

If an incident occurs involving a pregnant female, a Public Protection Notice will be sent to the Named Safeguarding Midwife.

All professionals involved in the Operation Encompass process are provided access to a free package of training to support practice and responses to children who experience Domestic Abuse. This includes two eLearning courses.

One titled ‘Operation Encompass in Lincolnshire’ which outlines the process agreed in Lincolnshire, the roles and responsibilities of all involved in the process (Police, Education, Early Years, Children’s Health & Children’s Services), the structure and schedule for notifications, what services can do following receipt of a notification, including assessing risk and supporting wider family members, information sharing, domestic abuse, controlling and coercive behaviour, key risk periods in Domestic Abuse, professional curiosity and safety planning. The training course offers several scenarios around how support can be provided to children and when to take the notification further when alongside other concerns.

The other eLearning which accompanies this is a module titled ‘Domestic Abuse: Children who Experience Domestic Abuse’ which covers domestic abuse legislation​, the effect on children experiencing Domestic Abuse​, understanding brain development​, and supporting children experiencing domestic abuse. This training offer is also accessible to services who border Lincolnshire where children attend their setting or service and might receive operation encompass notifications from Lincolnshire police.

Link to be included when live.

An officer attending a Domestic Abuse incident will try to establish if there are any children present or normally present in the home. This could include children who live in the home and any other children who might be visiting/staying at this address. Officers will seek to conduct welfare checks on children at the scene ensuring they are safe; this may include speaking directly to the child. If the children are asleep it is unlikely the officer will wake them up, but they will ask to see them. The parents will be asked the child(ren’s) name, date of birth and which school/early years setting they attend.

A crime or crime reports will be completed where necessary and a DASH risk assessment will be completed. There will be many occasions where the information the police are, initially, provided with, has only come from one of the parties involved. At the point of sharing the information with Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) the information’s veracity may not have been established.

Where the adults provide the details of the school or early years setting, the officer will be able to select the relevant school and DSL and an email is automatically sent to the DSL. The accuracy in sharing the information is reliant on the accuracy of the information provided to the police by the adults. It is not uncommon for parents, during the summer holidays to share the school the children were at, not the one they will attend in September, for instance.

Where information is not shared with the officer at the property, the officer will make attempts to find out education and early years details. This is done by asking the adults present. However, there is no legal power to require the parents/adults to tell the police. There are occasions when the details are refused, or incorrect ones are given.

If the details provided on the Operation Encompass notification you receive are incorrect the DSL should notify the Police Safeguarding Hub (PSH) via email that the child is not at your school. When replying, please include a copy of the notification. The PSH and Lincolnshire Social Care Operation Encompass staff will seek to identify the correct school and share the disclosure.

If the parents/adults refuse or cannot give the details required, the system automatically sends the notification to the PSH Operation Encompass inbox for the team to manage. The team will liaise with relevant staff and records they hold to identify the correct school and a referral will be sent to the correct DSL once this information is located.

When there is a domestic incident, the PSH receive a copy of the DASH and any safeguarding concerns. The Support and Research Team will carry out research. If they identify any children whose residential address is the same as the aggrieved or the perpetrator, and have not been included on the DASH, they will complete a manual Operation Encompass and share it with LCC Operation Encompass team, who will identify the relevant DSL and share the disclosure in line with their policies and procedures.

If an officer responds to an incident and there are immediate safeguarding concerns for a child, they will follow agreed safeguarding procedures. Where appropriate they may exercise their police protection powers or detain suspects and liaise with social care to ensure that appropriate safeguarding strategies are put in place to protect the child(ren) and notify children's safeguarding via the usual police process.

 An Operation Encompass notification is separate to a safeguarding referral and therefore does not mean that a safeguarding referral has been made at the point of attendance at the incident - this will only be done if there are immediate safeguarding concerns for the child, as with usual police process.

If a safeguarding referral is not necessary Children's Services are still informed of any Domestic Abuse incidents where police attend by way of a Domestic Abuse notification.

Lincolnshire Police Operation Encompass have a strict policy where only two e-mail addresses per education setting can be registered with them. The Lincolnshire County Council Safeguarding in Schools team are responsible for keeping this information up to date with the contact details provided to them by Lincolnshire education settings. An update is sent to Lincolnshire Police by the Head of Education Support at the end of each calendar month. The information for this update is provided by the Safeguarding in Schools team. Education settings should decide the two most appropriate e-mail addresses to use for Operation Encompass notifications. It is generally recommended that these contacts include the school Designated Safeguarding Lead and a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead. It is always recommended that two e-mail addresses are registered with Operation Encompass.

If any roles or contact details change within the education setting, a member of staff from the setting should use and follow the directions on  the ‘All Schools Operation Encompass Update form (new)’ which can be found on the Perspective Lite website by following either of these pathways:

LA Documents > Safeguarding > Areas within Safeguarding > Domestic Abuse (MARAC) > Operation Encompass- Primary

or

LA Documents > Safeguarding > Areas within Safeguarding > Domestic Abuse (MARAC) > Operation Encompass- Secondary

The notification e-mail will be sent to the e-mail addresses registered with Operation Encompass for your education setting. Please make sure the spam/junk folder is regularly checked in case any notifications have arrived there. If they have, take appropriate steps in consultation with the setting’s IT provider to ensure the notifications arrive in the e-mail inbox. E-mails may come from a Lincolnshire Police e-mail address or a Lincolnshire County Council address. Please check the details carefully within any Operation Encompass e-mail that is received. Operation Encompass notifications can arrive at any time.

By receiving the notification from police, the education provider should note that this is for their information only and does not need to be discussed with the family or any other professionals involved. There is no requirement to inform any Early Help or Social Workers already involved with the family, unless receipt of the notification increases risk or impacts on any safety plans agreed.

The notification allows the education provider to offer additional support to the pupil and be in a better position to understand the pupil’s needs and behaviours. The professional receiving the notification will need to consider who needs to also know this information and how this will be shared with them.

Lincolnshire provides an e-learning module 'Operation Encompass in Lincolnshire' which is placed on the LCC and LSCP Combined Six-Year Safeguarding training pathway for Education DSL's/DDSL's as a must do course. Education settings should also consider whether there are any other members of staff within their setting who would benefit from completing this course. This course is key in understanding how the Operation Encompass process operates in Lincolnshire. 

Details of the notification should be stored in the pupil’s child protection file alongside any details about the pupil’s presentation and actions taken by the setting to support the pupil. As Operation Encompass notifications are domestic abuse related, they need to be kept in a different section in the child protection file, domestic abuse tab/MARAC, not alongside other safeguarding topic areas. Many education settings have a separate tab on their Child Protection files (you might be using CPOMS, MYCONCERN or another Safeguarding recording method) for this topic and it is NOT shared with parents/carers if they ask for it. This is due to the complexities of the nature of domestic abuse, possible power and coercion and not necessarily knowing who the alleged perpetrator is. If the education setting uses a paper-based Child Protection file, create an indicator such as a sticker or symbol to show there is another file on this child.

Whilst attending the incident, the Police will ask the adults on the scene for details of any Early Years settings attended by the children present. When this information is provided, the Police will access the Lincolnshire Family Services Directory to find the setting’s details. It is the setting’s responsibility to ensure these details are kept up to date. When this information is not provided, the Police will send the child’s details to LCC Operation Encompass team to identify this information which may mean there is a delay in receiving the notification.

Childminders, nurseries and pre-schools will receive an Operation Encompass notification via email. The setting will receive this information so that additional support may be provided to the child. Details of the notification should be stored in the child’s safeguarding record alongside any details about the child’s presentation and actions taken by the setting to support the child.

By receiving the notification from police, the Early Years provider should note that this is for their information only and does not need to be discussed with the family or any other professionals involved. There is no requirement to inform any Early Help or Social Workers already involved with the family, unless receipt of the notification increases risk or impacts on any safety plans agreed. However, where receipt of the notification adds to existing concerns or leads to the development of further concerns, the risks should be considered and a decision made as to whether a safeguarding referral is needed. The notification is confidential but may be shared with the appropriate staff member who will also be in contact with the child.

The Operation Encompass Professionals’ National Advice and Guidance helpline is available on 0204 513 9990, Monday to Friday, 8am-1pm.

It offers free advice from Educational or Clinical Psychologists on how best to support individual children. They can also discuss whole school policies and practices about supporting children experiencing Domestic Abuse.