Kent Police - Operation Encompass

Kent Police will be using the Operation Encompass safeguarding notification system to share these missing episodes with schools from Monday 21 October 2024.

Kent Police uses a database called Compact to record missing person enquiries. Under this new initiative officers will be able to use the Compact database to highlight when a child of school age has been reported as a missing person and then later on as a found person. Compact will then share the information with the Central Referral Unit (CRU) administrators who will then establish which school the child attends. The administrators will then forward the notifications onto the relevant school. CRU administrators will use the email addresses already provided by schools for Operation Encompass.

The Operation Encompass plus Compact notification is to inform you of the fact that a child has been reported missing. It does not confirm whether the child is still missing at the point you receive this notification, but a ‘found’ notification should follow after the child is located for that missing episode.

There are only very brief circumstances in these notifications and if any additional information needs to be shared with your school this will come by way of another Op Encompass Plus notification in the usual format you receive from us.

There is no need for schools to then send a referral to social services purely to advise social services of the missing or found episodes. The Compact database will also be sharing separate missing and found notifications with social services.

Schools:

Please do not reply to the email received.

If you have any relevant information to share please contact Kent Police

On this note can I take this opportunity to advise; when schools receive any Operation Encompass notifications, please do not share with any parent the name of the CRU administrator that has sent the notification to your school. CRU administrators are not Police Officers and are not the Officer in the Case (OIC). We have a had a recent instance when a parent has been given the name of a civilian administrator which is not appropriate.

We hope this new arrangement will bring more successful communications between Kent Police and schools about their most vulnerable pupils.