Education & Inspections Act 2006 Including Use of Force Guidance.

1. Welcome… Education & Inspections Act 2006 Including Use of Force Guidance.

2. Education & Inspections Act 2006 Section 93 of EIA 2006 replaces Section 550A of the Education Act 1996 Teachers have been allowed to restrain pupils under common law, with the same authority as parents. Previous guidelines on discipline were not clear enough – unsure if they had the law on their side

3. New measures include : • Legal right to confiscate inappropriate items, such as mobile phones or music players. • Statutory powers to discipline pupils on the way to & from school (travelling on buses or trains ). • Greater legal scope & flexibility in giving detentions ( inc. after school or Saturdays ) • A legal duty to make provision to tackle all forms of bullying

4. Reasonable force • There is still no legal definition of reasonable force. • The Act strengthens the legal power for school staff in their use of force to prevent pupils from:– • Committing a crime • Causing injury: damage disruption

5. Weapon searches • Legislation in the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 • Allows HT to search groups of pupils,if they suspect knife carrying. • Schools can use metal-detector arches & wands to carry out - random, non-intrusive searches for weapons. [see article Jan 07 Sec Teachers,no.48 – A Safe Place to Learn:re George Mitchell Sch., Waltham Forest.]

6. School discipline • 2006 Ofsted reported that pupil behaviour is satisfactory or better in almost all schools inspected. • Fewer than 1: 10 HT said that behaviour was among their top three concerns

7. Quote Jim Knight , Minister of State for Schools : “The new power to discipline puts an end to the culture of, you can’t tell me what to do, which a few arrogant pupils or abusive parents have sneered at teachers.”

8. School discipline policy • Every HT is required to draw up & publicise a discipline policy. • Bring it to the attention of pupils , parents & staff at least once a year. • Essential elements are strategies to tackle Bullying / racial & sexual harassment • The policy on detentions

9. School discipline policy It should: • Promote self- discipline & proper regard for authority among pupils. • Encourage good behaviour & respect for others. • Ensure pupils’ standards of behaviour is acceptable. • Regulate students conduct.

10. Working with parents • Effective partnership between schools & parents is key to good discipline. [Ofsted report 2005] New in force from Sept 2007 include : • Parent contracts to ensure parents tackle problem behaviour before the point of exclusion. • Parents to take responsibility in the 1st five days of exclusion to ensure their child is not found in a public place without reasonable justification. • Education provision to be made for all excluded pupils from day 6, rather than the current day 16

11. School Partnerships By Sept 2007 all Secondary schools are expected to work together to improve: • behaviour & persistent truancy • to share expertise • & make better use of the national support available. Local Authorities are expected to devolve funding (commissioning support & provision for at risk pupils- exclusions, persistent truants )

12. Use of Force • This updated guidance replaces and supersedes DFES Circular 10/98.It provides clarity of purpose and process. • Strong emphasis on staff training in de-escalation strategies alongside physical intervention skills • (Para 41); on documentation that underpins practice, such as positive handling plans (Para 23b) • Specific areas to cover in policy construction (Annex “A” Page 16-19) and the recording and reporting of incidents. (Para 43-51 and Annexe “B” Page 19)

13. Explicit Key Messages: • The guidance acknowledges the potential for injury to both pupils and staff involved in physical intervention responses. (Para 37) • Schools should have a policy on the use of reasonable force to control or restrain pupils ( Para 18) • The Policy should be approved formally by the governing body and made known to staff, pupils and parents ( Para 18)

14. No Touch Policy! • No school should have a policy of “ No Physical contact” (Para 19) • All staff – authorised and unauthorised – need to understand their powers and the options open to them. They need to know what is acceptable and what is not ( Para 20)

15. Search for Weapons • Although the guidance acknowledges that reasonable force may be used in exercising the statutory power introduced under section 45 of the violent Crime reduction act 2006 to search pupils without their consent for weapons, there is a clear and strong emphasis that advises schools NOT to search a pupil where resistance is expected, but rather to call the police. (Para 16)

16. Parents & PHP’s • Schools need to develop Positive Handling plans for Individual pupils assessed as being at greatest risk of needing restrictive physical interventions in consultation with the pupil and his or her parents (Para 23b) Such plans would include strategies to prevent and deal with any recurrence of behaviour that could lead to the use of force ( Para 57)

17. Records • Schools should keep an up to date record of staff who are authorised to use force (Para 24b) • School leadership teams are advised to assess the frequency and severity of incidents requiring the use of force (Para 31) • It is good practice for governors to monitor incidents where force has been used. Head teachers have an important role in reporting such incidents to the governing body. (Para 54) • An incident Report form involving the use of restrictive physical intervention is likely to form part of the pupil’s educational record. Schools should retain records of such incidents until the member of staff involved has reached normal retirement age or for 10 years from the date of allegation if that is longer. (Para 51)

18. Training • The guidance provides schools with information about the BILD accreditation scheme as a source for schools and local authorities with regard to identifying organisations that offer training in the use of force and related techniques such as de-escalation. ( Para 41)