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Domestic abuse and young missing persons - notifications to schools

This scheme supports communication between the police and schools with early reporting when a child or young person has been reported to the police as being connected to a domestic abuse incident or has been reported missing from home.

This helps schools support with safeguarding, as well as understand and support the child’s needs and possible behaviours at school.

Process

Our Education Inclusion and Partnership Team (EIPT) runs the scheme in partnership with the police.

  1. Information from the police is sent to the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) at the school
     
  2. This information should be added to safeguarding records held about the child
     
  3. The DSL develops a working strategy in discussion with the class teacher, checking safeguarding records and deciding what support should be offered to the child

  4. The school assesses the level of need and risk alongside information about other concerns. Consider if you need to complete:

    • an Early Help Assessment (EHA)
    • a referral for an early help service (via an EHA)
    • a referral to MASH

    The information held by our team is limited to what is shared with the school - no further information is available

  5. The DSL will review actions taken

Receiving notifications

The head teacher and DSL will receive an email from EIPT-Notifications containing the words ‘Domestic Abuse Notification’ or ‘Missing Persons Notification’ in the subject.

As the information is sensitive, we will use Egress secure emails.

Actions

Shared information

The information shared doesn't duplicate or replace any safeguarding interventions that may happen following police involvement - it helps schools better support the pupil appropriately, following what is likely to have been a traumatic experience.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead should train school staff in the notification process and monitor the safe use of this information in the school.

Your DSL can then share this information with relevant staff, and they jointly assess what type of support (silent or overt) needs to be offered to the affected child or young person.

Schools should not visit or discuss this information with the family (unless the child or a family member separately discloses information about the incident).

Some examples of support:

  • mentoring or someone to talk to
  • checking on wellbeing
  • offering ‘quiet time’ 
  • discussion with school nurse
  • referrals to Social Care
  • keeping an eye on the individual
  • initiate an early help assessment
  • complex case meeting
  • referrals to tier 3 specialist support 
  • discussion with social workers if social care already involved.

If you want advice following receipt of a DA or Missing persons notification, please contact your Early Help Coordinator (not MASH).  

If you have a query about the process, please email us at [email protected].

Further guidance

This is a multi-agency meeting where high-risk domestic abuse cases are discussed.

Education Inclusion and Partnership Team receives the agendas for these monthly meetings and will email the appropriate schools' DSLs with child’s name, the date of the meeting, and an information template for them to return, to MARAC by EGRESS email.

This will help the meeting with their decision making by providing the school's perspective on the family and children.

Schools can contact MARAC if they wish to attend (contact details will be included in the notification).

School must not share MARAC information with the family. The MARAC team will contact the family and have any needed discussions with them.

Schools need to include information about this scheme on their website and include the information in their safeguarding policy, prospectus and new starter packs. They should also send a letter to parents outlining the scheme.

Example letter

Dear Parent / Carer 

I am writing to inform you that the school is part of a jointly run project between North Northamptonshire Council, Northamptonshire Police, and our school. The Notification Process has been set-up to help schools to provide support to children who have been present at incidents of domestic violence or where a child has had a missing event. 

The school will receive a secure email from North Northamptonshire council on the morning after any domestic incident or missing event that has involved a child at our school.

The school have designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) (insert names of all key adults). They have received training to allow them to use the information that has been shared, in confidence to make sure that the right support is available for children and their families. 

We are keen to offer the best support possible to our pupils and we believe this is going to be extremely beneficial for all those involved. 

If you have any concerns or questions, then please contact one of the above DSLs or myself and we will be happy to discuss this further. Further information about the project can be found on our school’s website and is available from the school office on request 

Yours faithfully,

(insert name) 
(insert title)

Section 11(2) of the Children’s Act, 2004 requires councils and the Police to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children.

This provides the conditions required under the Data Protection Act 2018 by which personal and sensitive personal data may be lawfully shared.

Personal data shared must be proportionate, necessary but not excessive, and must be balanced with the consideration of privacy rights under the Human Rights Act. It must take into account any duty of confidentiality owed. A public interest in disclosure must outweigh an individual's right to privacy.

It is recognised that the handling of confidential and sensitive information needs to be dealt with in a way that is proportionate and appropriate to the needs of the child or young person and family. To address this, staff receiving the information must have responsibility or oversight of safeguarding within the school. A notification must be stored securely in the school’s child protection filing system, as per school safeguarding procedure.

If you have not done so already, we recommend that update your school safeguarding policy with a section surrounding domestic abuse notifications.

Suggested wording for Whole School Safeguarding Policy:

At (insert name of school) we are working in partnership with North Northamptonshire Council and Northamptonshire Police to identify and provide appropriate support to pupils who have had a missing episode or experienced domestic abuse in their household (The domestic abuse scheme is nationally called Operation Encompass).

To achieve this, North Northamptonshire Council will share police information with the Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead(s) of all missing episodes and domestic incidents that have been reported to them where one of our pupils has been affected. On receipt of any information, the Designated Safeguarding Lead will decide on the appropriate support the child requires, this could be silent or overt.

Last updated 14 October 2024