An MSP is today lodging a bill on the use of physical restraint and seclusion in Scottish schools.
The move from Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour MSP for Edinburgh Southern, comes after campaigning that highlighted experiences faced by pupils and a consultation period that began in June 2023.
The bill is the basis for the proposed Calum’s Law, named after Calum Morrison, who has epilepsy, autism and learning difficulties, and whose mother, Beth Morrison, has highlighted his experiences of being restrained in school aged 11.
In 2018, the children’s commissioner report No Safe Place recorded 2,674 interventions involving restraint and seclusion in 18 of Scotland’s local authorities.
Only 13 of those councils reported the number of children (386) subject to those interventions. This represented 5.86 cases per child; children with disabilities were disproportionately affected.
6 key principles on restraint and seclusion in schools
Mr Johnson’s bill sets out six core principles for reforming rules on restraint and seclusion in schools, including:
- Requiring the recording of all such incidents by an existing Scottish governmental body.
- Establishing a role to monitor the approach to seclusion and restraint in schools and make recommendations for improvement.
- Informing parents and carers of each incident of seclusion or restraint, detailing the circumstances and methods used.
- Creating a complaints process to provide a clear route for concerns over seclusions and restraint.
- Providing a statutory basis for training for school staff.
- Requiring data on the use of seclusion and restraint to be regularly published by the Scottish government and reported to the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Johnson said that his “concern about the levels of violence in Scotland’s classrooms” had increased since the consultation started, with families and teachers “deeply frustrated” by Scotland’s approach to restraint and seclusion.
He had found some families’ accounts of their children’s experiences “difficult to read”, adding that today marked “a huge step forward” in campaigning against the use of restraint and seclusion.
Beth Morrison, mother of Calum and the leading campaigner for Calum’s Law, said campaigners were “so grateful” to Mr Johnson and that their evidence showed that restraint and seclusion were “being used as a punitive response to distressed behaviour” and “unmet needs in school”.
“In the last school year, we heard from 208 desperate families who told us their child had been physically and emotionally harmed because they had been subjected to the use of restraint and/or seclusion in Scottish schools,” she said.
“These are not large, out-of-control teenagers, they are small children - 33 per cent were just six years old, 23 per cent were five and there hasn’t been a single case involving a child over the age of eight this year; 91 per cent of these children are autistic or have ADHD.”
‘Restraint and seclusion must only ever be a last resort’
Ms Morrison noted that the Scottish government had in June incorporated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law, with the UNCRC “clear that restraint and seclusion must only ever be used as a last resort to keep a child safe from harm”.
Ms Morrison described it as “utterly scandalous” that the government had “refused to protect our most vulnerable in law”.
Calum’s Law, she said, would uphold all children’s human rights, ensure the incidents are recorded and that education staff get the training and support they “desperately need to respond in the right way when a child is distressed”.
The Scottish government has been contacted for comment.
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