The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) has said it is “extremely concerned” that an investigation into a Leeds school found “no case to answer” after a child was held in a prone restraint within a seclusion room.
The case was featured as an item on BBC News at Ten last week and showed a 12-year-old boy being held face-down on the floor and held by five members of staff.
Leeds City Council’s investigation into Springwell Leeds Academy North, a school for pupils with social, emotional, and mental health special needs, found that malpractice was unsubstantiated. The trust that operates the school said that staff had “no case to answer.”
Jacqui Shurlock, CEO of the CBF, said it should be viewed as a clear safeguarding concern when children are secluded and experiencing life-threatening practices such as prone restraint while at school, where they should be safe.
She added: “Both of these practices are outdated and inhumane and should be consigned to the past. There are better, more effective ways to understand, prevent, and respond to challenging behaviour.
“I am extremely concerned that the Academy Trust stated that this incident is typical and that local authorities who have a responsibility to investigate safeguarding concerns appear to be condoning the harmful use of restraint and restrictive practices and failing to keep children safe”
The boy’s mother, who sent the footage to the BBC, said she was “horrified” when she watched it. The CCTV includes one 50-minute video in which a 12-year-old autistic pupil is repeatedly restrained by staff and shown trying to kick them. Near the end of the footage, the child swings his arm at staff and is then manoeuvred to the floor. He is then held in a prone restraint for three minutes.
The CBF said that using prone restraint, where a child is restrained in a face-down position, can impact their airways and increase the risk of asphyxia, choking, vomiting and cardiac arrest. Due to these dangers, the 2019 guidance for health services, social care services and special education settings, “Reducing the need for restraint and restrictive interventions”, says that children should not be held on the ground.
It said that, as shown on the News at Ten, this guidance was not followed with a child held in the prone position for three minutes.
Last year, the BBC also broadcast “The School Prison Cells”, which showed children shut in a bare padded room without natural light and toilet facilities for hours at Whitefield School in London.
Following the programme broadcast, a spokesman for the prime minister told the BBC that it “cannot and should not have happened and should not happen again”.
The Children’s Commissioner also called for a formal review of the events that took place. Dame Rachel de Souza said that the experiences of these children are ‘appalling’ and no child should ever be physically restrained under such conditions and with such a lack of compassion, especially those who are so vulnerable.
Since then, the government has issued draft guidance on the “Use of reasonable force in schools” which continues to allow teaching staff to use seclusion and recommends that teachers tell parents if seclusion is used, but with no legal obligation to do so.
The CBF is now calling for a human rights-based approach to behaviour in schools, strengthened laws and guidance, and adequate training for staff to better understand challenging behaviour and learn how to prevent the need for physical intervention and seclusion, overseen with greater scrutiny by local authorities and Ofsted.
Family carers, who have campaigned on this issue for many years, have shared the physical and emotional impact seclusion and other restrictive interventions have had on their children, with some children and young people being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a direct result of being placed in seclusion at school.
It added that the government’s failure to take tougher action means that from September, while schools will have a legal duty to report and record the use of restraint, children can still be secluded at school, and parents may be unaware that it has taken place.
The National Autistic Society (NAS) said that the footage was horrific and that no stone should be left unturned to find out how this happened and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Tim Nicholls, Assistant Director of Policy, Research and Strategy at the National Autistic Society, added: “To be forcibly pinned down like that, in what should be a safe environment for pupils, must have been terrifying for this child. We can’t even begin to imagine how scared he felt and how distressing this is for his family.
“The more than 200,000 school-age autistic children in England deserve dignity, respect and support from staff, who are trained to meet their needs.”
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