Call for early intervention scheme to support young people who experience domestic violence

Meath County Council has called on three government ministers to implement an early-intervention scheme which supports children and young people who experience domestic abuse.

The call came on foot of a motion put before the council by Labour Cllr Elaine McGinty. She wants the ministers for Justice, Education, and Children, Disability, Equality and Integration to implement an “Operation Encompass” style programme between the Garda and the schools.

Operation Encompass is a police-led, school-based early intervention. It was created to ensure that by the start of the next school day a child’s school will be informed that there has been a police-attended incident of domestic abuse at the home of the child allowing immediate support to the child upon arrival at school. Cllr McGinty said that in 2020, Women’s Aid reported that there were 30,841 disclosures of abuse including 5,948 that were against children.