Operation Encompass: Greater awareness and consistency needed

Operation Encompass aims to notify schools as soon as is reasonably practicable where there are reasonable grounds to believe that a child may be a victim of domestic abuse.

Our previous article confirmed that ‘any relevant educational establishment’ attended by a potential victim of domestic abuse should be contacted, closing the gap which had previously meant that many independent schools were not notified.

Operation Encompass is a vital tool for schools in identifying vulnerable children and those at risk of harm. However, despite the legal requirement since May 2024, reports show that it’s still not being implemented consistently, causing delays in reports being received by schools.

How does Operation Encompass work?

To ensure compliance with their duty under the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, the police are required to notify the Designated Safeguarding Lead (“DSL”) at a child’s school of an incident before the start of the next school day. This includes incidents that occur over weekends and during school holidays. When the police are made aware that the parents have chosen to educate their child at home (elective home education), the local authority responsible officer within Children’s Social Care should be informed.

The Operation Encompass notification should include:

• The name and date of birth of any child from that educational setting who is related to any adult involved in the incident
• The police reference number
• The location, time and date of the incident
• If the children were present and, if so, where (notifications should be shared even if the child was not present at this particular incident)
• The voice of the child including if the child was spoken to, what they said, and if this conversation was in the presence of another adult or just with the police officer
• The circumstances of the event: police officers will need to carefully consider what schools needs to know about the child’s experience so that they can safely, securely and compassionately support the child in their care without putting them at any greater risk or accidentally retraumatising them through actions or words.

When notifying schools, police forces should also provide a direct email and telephone number so that they can contact the police if they need to change contact details or ask for further information about an incident.

What issues have schools experienced regarding Operation Encompass notifications?

The main difficulties faced by schools since the introduction of the statutory duty continue to be the timeliness of the notifications received and the quality of the information being provided.

Guidance provided by Operation Encompass is clear that, where a child is registered with a school, it’s the responsibility of the police force to send the notification. However, many forces are delegating this responsibility to the Local Authority which is leading to inconsistencies.

These regional discrepancies could be contributing to a delay in notifications being received or not being sent at all. A recent investigation by TES found that in January 2025, Suffolk Constabulary received 531 notifications of domestic abuse, but only 231 of these were sent on to schools. In February 2025, 298 out of a possible 524 notifications were not sent. The police force, when asked to explain these figures, redirected investigators to the Local Authority who did not respond. TES have reported that, when asked, most police forces and county councils could not confirm how long it takes for each notification to be sent. However, one Local Authority did report that there was an “average six days between the incident and the notification being sent to the schools”. It’s not clear if this delay can be attributed to a delay in the police force notifying the Local Authority or the Local Authority notifying the school.

Having sufficient procedures in place for notifying schools is of paramount importance. In April 2024 it was reported that approximately 2,000 Operation Encompass notifications were communicated to schools each day by police forces in England and Wales.

As part of their investigation, TES made a freedom of information (FOI) request to the 43 police forces in England and Wales for the number of notifications each has sent out since May 2024. Of those, just 12 responded at the time of publication. The forces that reported sending the highest numbers of notifications were Lancashire Police, which reported 22,457 in the year from May 2024; Derbyshire Constabulary, with 21,625; and Devon and Cornwall Police, with approximately 13,485.

As well as timing issues, schools also continue to report concerns with the quality of the information being shared. Further guidance on the information that must be included in a notification is needed to ensure that schools are fully informed about which children may need additional support, and how this is best provided.

The role of schools in Operation Encompass

Schools should ensure that their role and responsibilities in Operation Encompass:

• Are known and understood by all staff including school governors
• Form part of the school’s safeguarding policy (which should be published on the school’s website)
• Form part of the school’s communication with new families
• Are visible in school using Operation Encompass posters.

Operation Encompass offers free training to all school staff as part of their personal professional development to help them to identify and offer ongoing support to children affected by domestic abuse, including suggestions about what support might look like following a notification. As of May 2024, this training had been accessed by over 28,333 people.

As key adults, the DSL/DDSL must undertake this training and register that they have completed it with Operation Encompass to allow notifications to be received from their local police force.

Practically, if a school is receiving telephone calls from the police, the DSL/DDSL needs to be available prior to the start of the school day to receive this information. If the notification is received via an email, then the school must provide the police with a secure, generically named email address which can only be accessed by the DSL/DDSL and checked, as a minimum, prior to the start of each school day.

Calls for additional information to support Operation Encompass

TES have called on the National Police Chiefs’ Council to provide information on nationwide initiatives to improve the implementation of consistent notification procedures. They have also requested that the Department for Education provides guidance for schools to support vulnerable children identified by Operation Encompass.

We will continue to provide further updates on any developments in this area.