Operation Encompass
The Police Perspective

Operation Encompass is a national police-school information sharing scheme that ensures a child's school is notified before the start of the next school day when that child has been present at, or involved in, a domestic abuse incident attended by police. The notification allows the school's trained Key Adult to be available and prepared when the child arrives, without the child needing to explain what happened at home.

What the scheme does

• Police attend a domestic abuse incident. One or more children are present at, or affected by, the incident.
• The attending officer — or, in many forces, a centralised Encompass administrator — contacts the child's school before 8:00am the following school day.
• The school's trained Key Adult receives the notification and ensures they are available to provide quiet, sensitive support when the child arrives.
• The child gets a safe, aware adult in their school environment — without having to say a word about what happened at home.

What information is shared

• The child's name and year group
• That there was an incident the previous night
• The general nature of the concern (domestic abuse) — not the operational detail
• Whether the child was present at the incident or otherwise directly affected

What is NOT shared

• The full details of the incident or the nature of any injuries
• The victim's protective arrangements, new address, or safety plan
• The offender's bail conditions or location — unless directly relevant to the child's safety at school
• Information that would identify the non-police-involved parent as the perpetrator if the child is unaware

History and coverage

Operation Encompass began in 2011 in Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall Police, developed by Police Sergeant David Carney-Haworth and his wife Elizabeth Carney-Haworth, a headteacher at a local primary school. It became national policy and is now delivered across all 43 forces in England and Wales. School registration is managed through the Operation Encompass charity and the school's force. As of 2025, the majority of primary schools in England and Wales are registered. Secondary school registration has historically been lower, though it has improved significantly. Following the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (which inserts s.49A into the Domestic Abuse Act 2021), the scheme now sits on a statutory footing, with Home Office guidance published in November 2025 placing a legal duty on all 43 forces to notify a child's educational setting.

The Encompass notification is only as good as the call that delivers it. A call made to the wrong person, too late, with too much or too little information, fails the child it was designed to protect. This article covers the practical detail of making the call correctly.

Who makes the call

This varies by force. In some forces, the attending officer is responsible for making the notification directly. In others, a centralised Operation Encompass administrator within the force makes notifications on behalf of officers who flag incidents on the incident log. Know your force's protocol — it is an operational requirement, not an optional extra.

When to call

Before 8:00am on the next school day. The timing is non-negotiable. A call made at 9:30am, after the child has already arrived at school without the Key Adult knowing, provides no protection. If the incident happens on a Friday night, the call is made on Monday morning (or before a school closure ends if there is one). If you are working nights and cannot make the call before going off duty, your force's protocol should specify who takes over responsibility.

Who to ask for

Ask for the Operation Encompass Key Adult by name if you have it, or ask reception to connect you with the Designated Key Adult for Operation Encompass. Do not leave the notification with:

• Reception staff who are not the Key Adult
• The child's class teacher
• The headteacher (unless they are the Key Adult)
• A voicemail inbox shared by multiple people

The information must reach the Key Adult personally. If the Key Adult is not available, ask for the Deputy Key Adult. If neither is available, leave a message on the Key Adult's personal voicemail — not a shared inbox — using only the child's name and the words "Operation Encompass notification." The Key Adult will know what to do when they receive it.

What to say — a working script

Pause and allow the Key Adult to respond. They may ask questions — answer only what is relevant to the child's welfare and safety at school. Do not go into operational detail about the investigation.

What NOT to say

• Details of what occurred or the nature of any injuries to the victim
• The victim's new address or any safety arrangements
• Whether an arrest was made or the offender's current location — unless the school needs to know for the child's immediate safety (e.g., the offender has been released without charge and is likely to attempt school contact)
• Other children's names if more than one child was present — notify separately for each child at their respective schools

After the call

• Record the notification as made on your incident log: time, who you spoke to, school name
• If you could not make contact, record the attempts and the reason
• If you are unsure the school has a trained Key Adult in place to receive and act on the notification, note this and consider whether a direct safeguarding referral to the DSL is warranted given the nature of the incident

Understanding what happens at the school end of an Encompass notification is important for two reasons: it tells you what to expect when you follow up, and it helps you calibrate what information you share on the call.

The Key Adult role

Every registered school designates a trained Key Adult — usually the DSL, a deputy DSL, or a senior pastoral lead — who is specifically trained for the Operation Encompass scheme. This training covers trauma-informed responses to children experiencing DA, confidentiality requirements, and what to do if a child discloses.

What the Key Adult does with the notification

• Records the notification in the school's confidential safeguarding records — not in the general administrative system
• Ensures they are at the school gate or door when the child arrives, or arranges for another Key Adult to be there
• Makes a gentle, low-key point of contact with the child — asking how they are, being available — without revealing that they know what happened at home
• Monitors the child through the day and provides a quiet space or pastoral check-in if needed
• Considers whether a safeguarding referral to MASH is appropriate based on the notification and any existing concerns — the notification itself may or may not reach the threshold for a referral

What the Key Adult cannot and does not do

• Does not tell class teachers or support staff about the notification — the information is strictly confidential to Key Adults
• Does not contact the child's home to discuss the notification — doing so could alert the perpetrator, undermine the victim's safety plan, or put the child in further danger
• Does not say "Operation Encompass" to the child — the child is given support without framing, which avoids stigma and does not require the child to engage with what happened
• Does not investigate what happened — the school's role is to support, not to question

If the child discloses something at school

If the child discloses during the school day — either directly connected to the incident or something that indicates ongoing risk — the school follows standard safeguarding disclosure procedures. This means: the Key Adult notes what the child said verbatim, does not ask leading questions, and refers to the DSL (if the Key Adult is not already the DSL). If the disclosure indicates a s.47 child protection threshold, the DSL will refer to MASH. This runs alongside the police investigation, not instead of it.

What this means for police following up

If you need to follow up with the school after making an Encompass notification — for example, to check on the child's attendance or gather pastoral intelligence — your contact should be the Key Adult directly. Do not approach class teachers, who will not have been told about the notification and cannot help you.

Operation Encompass does not cover every child affected by domestic abuse. Understanding where the gaps are is essential for police who encounter a child in circumstances the scheme was not designed to reach.

Schools not yet set up to receive notifications

Under the statutory duty (Victims and Prisoners Act 2024), forces must make arrangements to notify all educational settings, so the historic gap of "unregistered" schools is closing. In practice, however, a setting may not yet have a trained Key Adult in place to receive and act on a notification. Where you are unsure a notification will reach someone who can act, consider a direct safeguarding contact with the school's DSL alongside the Encompass notification, under your general safeguarding duty as a First Responder.

Alternative provision and specialist settings

• Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and Alternative Provision (AP) — often not registered, and children placed in these settings are frequently among the most vulnerable
• Hospital schools — children on long-term medical placements typically not covered
• Special schools — registration rates vary significantly
• Independent schools — not all have engaged with the scheme

Home-educated children

Children who are educated at home (sometimes called "electively home educated" or EHE) have no school to notify. This is a significant gap: home-educated children are not subject to routine welfare monitoring by a school, and a domestic abuse incident may be one of the few points at which a statutory agency makes contact with the family. Consider whether the circumstances warrant a Children in Need referral (s.17) or a safeguarding referral to MASH if there are welfare concerns beyond the immediate incident.

Cross-border incidents

When a domestic abuse incident occurs in one police force area but the child attends school in a different force area, the attending force may not have a direct Encompass protocol with the school. Know your force's procedure for cross-border notifications — this is an area where children can fall through the gap.

Incidents where police do not attend

Encompass is triggered by a police-attended incident. If a domestic abuse situation is resolved by telephone, or if a report is made but police do not attend, no Encompass notification is generated. The child may still be significantly affected — particularly if they witnessed or heard what happened — but there is no automatic school notification. This is a systemic gap that officers should be aware of when logging and categorising incidents.

When the child is not present

Encompass is designed for incidents where the child was present. If the child was elsewhere (e.g., staying with grandparents) when the incident occurred but regularly lives in the household, there may still be a safeguarding consideration — but it falls outside the Encompass trigger. Use your professional judgment about whether a direct school or MASH contact is warranted.

Children as victims in their own right

Before the 2021 Act, children in DA households were frequently described as "witnesses" — a framing that placed them at the periphery of the incident and often outside the core support offer. The statutory shift to "victim" has direct operational implications: children are entitled to be treated as victims in their own right under the Victims' Code, and their welfare is a primary consideration in any DA response, not an afterthought.

A statutory duty to notify schools

The duty puts the scheme's long-standing voluntary practice onto a legal footing. It does not change the operational basics — the notification should still reach the school's Key Adult before the start of the next school day — but it removes any ambiguity about whether a force "participates": notification is now a legal obligation, not a local choice.

What this means for police on a call-out

• When children are present — awake or asleep, in another room or directly in the room — they are victims under s.3 and the response must address their welfare, not only the adult victim's
• The Encompass notification is the minimum. Consider whether a child's circumstances warrant a safeguarding referral to MASH independently of whether an adult victim wishes to engage
• Children who are apparently asleep upstairs may have heard everything — do not assume absence from the room means absence of impact
• Repeat incidents in a household with children cumulate: a child who has experienced multiple DA incidents is at significantly elevated risk, even if no single incident appears severe

KCSIE 2025 and the school's duty

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 lists domestic abuse as a specific category of harm that schools must be alert to. DSLs are trained to recognise the school-visible indicators of a child living with DA: emotional dysregulation, attendance changes, developmental regression, fearfulness around certain times of day or certain adults. This is the intelligence picture that schools hold — and that the Encompass notification unlocks in the right direction.

The poly-victimisation link

Children growing up in DA households are statistically at significantly elevated risk of other forms of exploitation and harm. Research consistently shows overlap between DA exposure and:

• Child criminal exploitation (CCE) — vulnerability to county lines recruitment is substantially higher in children from DA households
• Child sexual exploitation (CSE) — the same vulnerability profile
• Peer-on-peer abuse — children who model coercive control dynamics they have witnessed at home
• Mental health difficulties — particularly anxiety, PTSD, and attachment difficulties — which increase vulnerability to grooming

This means that when you make an Encompass notification, you are not responding to a single-issue welfare concern. The child you are notifying the school about may also be a child your CCE or CSE team has intelligence about, or will have in the future. Treat Encompass notifications as one data point in a broader vulnerability picture, not as a discrete welfare event.

When to consider a MASH referral alongside Encompass

• Repeat incidents — any pattern of repeated incidents in a household with children should be assessed as a cumulative risk
• Children under five — particularly vulnerable; developmental impact of DA exposure at this age is severe
• Children with additional needs or disabilities — reduced capacity to seek help or disclose
• Incidents involving serious violence or weapons — immediate s.47 threshold may be met
• Adult victim unwilling or unable to engage with support — does not reduce the child's welfare need