ATL

Restraining pupils

In a show of hands, delegates at this year's conference revealed that less than half knew if their school had a policy on retraining pupils. Even fewer had received training within the last twelve months.

A priority resolution welcomed the DfES' revised guidance on using force in schools and colleges but called on the government to ensure that it is a mandatory requirement for all education employers to: have a restraint policy in place and to provide initial and ongoing training for education staff in restraining pupils.

Jovan Trkulja reminded delegates that the new guidance states that the use of reasonable restraint, "that is to say the use of minimal physical intervention", is only allowed as a very last resort and that under the following circumstances:

• prevention of injury to others or damaging property

• committing a criminal offence or if under the age of 10, what would have been committing a criminal offence if the child had been above the age of criminal responsibility

• prejudicing good order and discipline.

Jovan pointed out that the new guidance gives examples of the first two points as fighting, attacks on other pupils and members of staff, pupils in risky or dangerous situations and absconding from lessons or attempting to leave school. He said: "A new departure is that from now on, all staff will be in lawful charge of pupils; this includes support and other non-teaching staff. However, the head is the only person who can delegate the power to discipline any pupil."

Jovan told Conference: "Please, members of Conference, on your return to work, check your school handbook and see if there is a policy on restraint and school and college reps, please ensure that you bring it to the attention of the headteacher that the policy might need revising to comply with the new astatutory guidance.

"Those of you who don't have a restraint policy in your workplace should make moves to have one put in place as soon as possible. Remind the head that she or he needs to take into account the special needs of certain pupils when revising the policy too. If you have received training and are based in a mainstream school, you are indeed fortunate. ATL believes that regular training in using reasonable force should be standard and by regular, we mean an annual update."

Delegate Alec Clark who works with excluded pupils, said that he was increasingly called into mainstream schools to deal with restraint situations and gave examples of the sort of challenging circumstances education staff can experience.

He told conference: "Restraint policies should not be piecemeal; there's  no point just training one member of staff to just tick a box."Stressing that training was essential for all staff, Jovan concluded: "The new guidance is handy for giving examples of reasonable interventions. It says it is reasonable to stand between pupils, block a pupil's path, lead pupils away by the hand or the arm, shepherding a pupil away by placing a hand in the centre of the back, pushing and pulling."

The resolution was carried unanimously.