The Department for Education is consulting on how “reasonable force, restraint and restrictive practices” are used in schools, to inform changes to its official guidance.
The government has said it is committed to “minimising” the use of restraint in all schools, and to supporting schools to use it “as safely as possible” where it is necessary.
And today it launched a consultation, saying it was seeking to understand how restraint was used in schools, “to inform revisions to guidance”.
Among other things it will look at how pupils are impacted by the use of reasonable force, restraint and restrictive practices, including those with special educational needs and disabilites; and how school leaders and school staff minimise the need to use reasonable force, restraint or other restrictive practices while ensuring that the environment feels safe for all pupils and staff.
Behaviour: guidance for schools on reasonable force
Current guidance defines reasonable force as “the broad range of actions used by most teachers at some point in their career that involve a degree of physical contact with pupils”.
All members of school staff have a legal power to use reasonable force, and the guidance says this can be used to “prevent pupils from hurting themselves or others, from damaging property, or from causing disorder”.
Guidance also says it can be used to remove disruptive children from the classroom “where they have refused to follow an instruction to do so” or to prevent a pupil behaving in a way that “disrupts a school event or a school trip or visit”.
The guidance is clear that it cannot be used as a punishment.
The consultation, which can be found on the government website, will run until mid-May.
It follows the publication of guidance on behaviour in schools last year.
