Part 1: Victims of Criminal Conduct Notifying schools etc if a child is a suspected victim of domestic abuse Section 20: Child victims of domestic abuse
Section 20 amends the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to establish that arrangements are in place in all police forces to ensure that all schools and other educational establishments a child might attend are notified where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the child may be a victim of domestic abuse, in order to provide appropriate support. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 legally recognises children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right for the first time.
	A duty on chief officers to ensure that arrangements are in place to make notifications is intended to motivate change as they can be held to account against them (via potential judicial review); to improve existing frontline practices, which would contribute to improving child safeguarding, and to enable early intervention and prevention of further domestic abuse. This section also provides a power to make regulations in the future to extend the organisations to which notifications can be made to include childcare providers.
	This will ensure there is an obligation on chief officers of police to make sure that all forces are making notifications as soon as reasonably practicable, except in exceptional circumstances that will be set out in regulations subject to the negative procedure.
	The decision to make a notification will require an assessment of whether the police member’s suspicions are reasonable and if an exceptional circumstance applies. The amendment will be inserted into the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, ensuring that the definition of ‘domestic abuse’ and the obligations relating to guidance in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 will apply.
	In due course (following the making of regulations subject to the affirmative procedure) childcare providers may also receive notifications from the police in either England and Wales or in both jurisdictions, meaning that children of below school age would also be covered by the scheme.