Use of restraint on child with ASD - is this acceptable?

[raspberryjuice]

Due to various issues I have obtained my ds's school records (he is not there now) and am now a bit concerned.

In his records there is a report regarding an exclusion incident. It stated that he was in a rage and had to be physically restrained by a TA.

My concerns are that I have never been informed that he was restrained and I know for a fact that no staff in the school have had any positive handling training. The Head Teacher has signed off the report form confirming that it is correct.

The use of the restraint didn't actually work as it was recorded that he got angrier following this so the TA left the room for her own safety. The TA was quite young and smaller than my ds so I'm surprised that she even attempted to do this.

I am now feeling worried in case this has happened to him more than once without me knowing. Does anyone know if staff can physically restrain a child if they have had no training and should parents be informed if this has taken place?

How do you.know they havent had training?

DH works in a school for students on the spectrum. All staff are PBS Trained and there are multiple restrain incidents daily. They do commuicate this with parents and in incident reports.

Your first port of call is to speak with the HT. Find out what official restraint was used and whether the staff member is PBS trained.

If staff feel a child is being a danger to others they don't really have a choice but to attempt to restrain.

If it had happened more than once it would be in his records.

Her size and age should have nothing to do with it - these restraints are designed to hold people of varying weights. Some are single oerson and some are designed to be done by two or more.

Also,.she may have had no choice for her ownsafety.

I dont think they are supposed to except in cases where the alternative is injury.

Staff at my sons (mainstream) school are having restraint training specifically to handle my youngest.

But in the interim there have been times when they have had to stop him getting to another child and block him from hitting them and grab him to stop him hurting himself.

Im ok with that, based on the alternative!
Lack of communication is unacceptable. You could really do with a meeting.

School's should only restrain if there is a danger of injury to the child or other children. Ideally no restraint should take place unless the restrainer is trained, but if a child is actually in danger I think most adults would act...

All incidences of restraint should be logged. I am not certain that they are obliged to inform parents, but can see that it would definitely be good practise... (that bit has never been part of my role - although the restraining part has been!)

Ack - I don't know where that apostrophe came from in the word "schools".

Staff must intervene if there is danger to the child or another child. They breach their duty of care if they do not. If restraint is needed on an ongoing basis, training is usually provided.

How do you know that no staff have had training?

Thanks for the responses. If school are allowed to do this then I guess I won't worry so much.
It was LA staff who confirmed that there has been no training within the whole school.

this publication makes it very clear the use of physical restraint can be carried out by staff within schools and the guidelines for reporting. If you notice, schools are not under any direction to inform of the need to use physical restraint and staff are not required to be trained in order to use physical restraint

Staff at our school are all trained in positive handling and any incident where any kind of physical restraint has been implemented a form has to be completed and signed by a member of the senior management team and is then filed for future reference. I'm not sure wether this is the same in all schools.

A child should be restrained by two people who have recieved proper training. It is dangerous to both the child and the adults if a restraint is carried out without proper training. People have been killed by dangerous restraint techniques.

"
My concerns are that I have never been informed that he was restrained and I know for a fact that no staff in the school have had any positive handling training."

I am incredibly surprised as the school would be laying themselves wide open to allegations of abuse. LEA insurance requires that any staff who carry out restraint have up to date training.

I thought that schools had to have a restraint book where the incident was detailed. Restraint should be proportionate to the incident. For example an untrained TA would be justified in intervening to prevent a child from being strangled.

www.atl.org.uk/help-and-advice/classroom-behaviour/restraint.asp

I would want to find out more about this incident and why restraint was felt to be the only solution.

If there was a strong likelihood that another child might be seriously injured, then I don't see that the staff had much choice: you can't just stand by and watch when you are responsible for other people's children even if you happen to be the only adult on the scene and have had no appropriate training.

If it was a mere matter of discipline which could have been resolved in another way, then I would make a complaint.

So basically what ReallyTired said. Including her point that the incident should be properly described somewhere.

If there is likely to be damage to property or another child or themselves then schools can restrain children. No training needs to have happened, although best practice would suggest that there should be if the likelihood of it happening is high, e.g. A special school. You do not need to be informed.

If you are looking after a child who is known to be severely autistic then the staff need restraint training whatever setting the child is in. Any incidents need to be documented to see if a pattern is arising and what triggers a violent outburst.

Teachers are damned if they do and damned if they don't. A good school (whether mainstream or special) will want to look at the circumstances that gave rise to the restraint situation.