Charity demands rethink on restraint

A charity has launched a campaign to protect children from restraint and seclusion in Scottish schools.

Enable Scotland, which advocates for people with learning disabilities, said children are at risk due to unregulated and unacceptable practices in schools.

In 2017-18 alone, 2674 incidents of restraint and seclusion relating to 386 children were recorded by Scotland’s local authorities.

Campaigners say that this figure does not paint the full picture because 10 local authorities – almost a third – failed to provide data.

Enable is today launching a campaign calling on the Scottish Government to issue new guidance and stricter protocols on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

In its In Safe Hands? report, one parent says a girl was regularly secluded and restrained at school, and was even

BY ANNIE BROWN a.brown@dailyrecord.co.uk locked for 45 minutes in a so-called “safe space”, where she soiled herself.

Another parent says that from the age of five, her son was restrained regularly at school and kept in a cloakroom by a teacher who held the door closed because he would not put his shoes on.

Enable Scotland’s director of external affairs, Jan Savage, said she wants the Scottish Government to tackle the issue of restraint and seclusion through “better guidance, greater support for teachers, and transparency and improved reporting from schools”.

The campaign calls for new guidance on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools and a minimum of two trained staff members at all times.

The Scottish Government has said it will invest £15million in additional support for learning assistants.

JAN SAVAGE ON HER CALL FOR ACTION