At St. Oswald’s, we are committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of all children and young people. We expect all staff, volunteers and parents to share this commitment. If you have any concerns about the welfare of a child, please speak to one of the Safeguarding team. Please also speak to us if you are concerned about the behaviour of any adults in the school.

The documents below are important to us.

• KCSIE is updated annually with important information about what schools MUST do to keep children safe.
• Our Safeguarding Policy is how we apply KCSIE in school and what else we do to keep your children safe.
• Safeguarding is the responsibility of ALL of our staff, but 4 people have overall responsibility for this.  They are known as the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) and have received special training for this which is updated every 2 years. Please see the "St Oswald's Safeguarding Team" document for further details.
• Key contacts have the names and numbers for you to contact with any safeguarding concern you may have that you can't tell us about in school.  These are also in the Safeguarding Policy, but you may find them more accessible as a separate document.

Operation Encompass

Operation Encompass Parents Awareness Letter

Dear Parent/Carer,

This letter is to remind you that our school is participating in Operation Encompass. 

Operation Encompass is a unique Police and Education early intervention safeguarding partnership which ensures that a child/ young person's school/ college is informed, prior to the start of the next school day, that there has been a domestic abuse, vulnerable child or missing incident to which the child or young person has been exposed, and which might then have an impact on them in school/ college the following day.

Each school/college is informed of all such incidents, not just those where an offence can be identified or those which are graded as high risk. The partnership recognises that all domestic abuse, vulnerable child and missing incidents can be harmful to children and young people.

This information will be shared throughout the year, including holidays and weekends. Information will only be shared with the school/ college by the police where it is identified that a young person was present, witnessed or was involved. 

A nominated member of staff, known as a Key Adult, has been trained to liaise with the police. At St Oswald’s RC Primary & Nursery School our Key Adult is Mrs Kippax. They will be able to use information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that the school makes provision for possible difficulties experienced by children or their families. The Key Adults will keep this information confidential and will only share it on a need-to-know basis, for instance, to teaching staff for the child or young person. It will not be shared with other school students.

This national initiative has been implemented across the whole of the Lancashire Police area.  If you would like some more information about it, you can view it online at www.operationencompass.org.

We are keen to offer the best support possible for our pupils and a recent review of Operation Encompass showed that it is beneficial and supportive for all those involved.

Yours sincerely,

  Mr J Jordan                                     Mrs C Kippax

Chair of Governors                                                                  Head Teacher

Pan Lancashire Operation Encompass

The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a domestic abuse, vulnerable child or missing incident. 

Operation Encompass has been created to address such situations that create a safeguarding risk to young people. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools/ colleges. The aim of sharing information with local schools/ colleges is to allow ‘Key Adults’ the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.  

Following the report of a domestic abuse, vulnerable child or missing incident, by

9.00am on the next school/ college day the school’s Key Adult will be informed of the child or young person’s involvement. This knowledge, given to educational establishments through Operation Encompass, allows the provision of immediate early intervention through silent or overt support dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child/ young person.

The purpose and procedures in Operation Encompass have been shared with all parents and governors, is detailed as part of the school’s Safeguarding Policy and published on our school website.

Early Help

If you feel you are in need of a bit of extra support, please do not hesitate to contact school.  We have a Family Support Worker, Mrs Cath Smith, who is in school every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and is available to support in any way she can - for children or families. 

Please contact school to request an informal chat or telephone call.