The Encompass Project Nottinghamshire was set up in September 2014 with a pilot scheme and rolled out across the county in May 2015. Its purpose is to alert schools when one of their pupils may have witnessed or been involved in an incident of domestic abuse. The project has been very successful and enabled support to be provided quickly to children and families who needed it.
Where the police become aware of a child who is in a household where there has been an incident of domestic abuse, a named member of staff at the child’s school or local children’s centre, or the child’s health visitor, will be told about what has happened as quickly as possible.
The scheme is run by Encompass staff at the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH), which is a collaboration between Notts police, health, schools and social care. You can access the briefing for professionals here.
Since the scheme was set up there have been over 920 calls to schools and over 400 calls to health visitors and children’s centres.
The sharing of this information has led to increased support and understanding for children and their families at an extremely stressful and difficult time. Their teachers and other professionals have an understanding of why a child’s behaviour may have changed and can offer the appropriate support and an opportunity for the child or young person to talk to someone in confidence.
The scheme has also led to increased support for families with professionals able to work together to offer support.
The increased recognition that domestic abuse affects everyone in the household is fully supported by Equation. We work with schools to help prevent and raise awareness of domestic abuse, as well as supporting the survivors of abuse.
If you are experiencing abuse and need help, find more information here.
If you are in immediate danger, call 999.