Restraint at School for ASD child

[SimonF23]

My son was restrained at School earlier this week as his behaviour was getting out of control. I am not in agreement with it but believe it could have been necessary. My issue is that he has visible injury on the backs of his arms just at the back of his arm pits which look like his clothing has been so tight on his skin it has caused blood to come to the surface. I need advice on whether I can take it further in the form of a complaint? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance

Make an official complaint and ask them to explain exactly what happened.

I worked in an SEN school. Very rarely was restraint necessary and then didnt leave bruises. That’s a sign they either weren’t using the right techniques or didn’t have enough adults to do it safely.

The first rule of any appropriate training is deescalate, deescalate, deescalate. What did they try? For how long? who restrained him and when did they last get proper training?

In any situation where a child was restrained we would have a meeting to discuss how they got to that point and how we could avoid it happening again.

It suggests to me that the environment isn’t meeting his needs.

All the best OP, hope you’re doing okay. It’s a horrible thing.

This is incredibly unsafe and from what you’ve said sounds like assault.

You don't solve a safeguarding issue by causing another one. That type of hold is dangerous, outdated and not practiced or taught in schools. There will be no staff trained in it,because it's not approved.

PP's are correct.
You need a meeting with the head and SENCO and find out what happened and why. What set your son off, what de escalation methods did they use, who performed the restraint and in what way, ask to see the report (they must fill one in if there's a restraint incident) and CCTV if there is any. Have they followed their own policies,could this have been avoided, what are they putting in place /what his management or risk assessment plan will be to help prevent this in the future.

I have to say, if their replies are unsatisfactory, definitely complain but also look at a different setting. Some schools can be either unwilling or unable to change and appropriately manage children with SEND. Fighting them might be the right thing, but it can severely affect (in many ways)a child while it's going on. In my eyes it's just not worth it.

I too also previously worked in SEN and this is correct.
it should have definitely been recorded
Do they have any de-escalation rooms?

Sorry I was referring to the post that stated that restraint can be commonly in some settings. The school I worked at did have to use this if the dire need was there. In 6 years of working in SEN I have been punched twice, hit with a laptop and spat at. It's part of the role. Sadly these techniques are something that have to be used under the right guidelines.

This comment isn't helpful, I have already said that I don't disagree that the restraint may have been necessary as I haven't seen any report etc from the school. That isn't what is in question. It's the marks on my son's skin that are the issue.

I have worked with autistic children where physical intervention is sometimes necessary.
the comment about restraining on the floor made me physically freeze. There is no way a mainstream setting has the training and experience to do a prone restraint.
restraining on the floor is incredibly dangerous. This is really not ok.gather your information, make your decisions.

We regularly use a variety of different holds at the school I work at and many of our children can be exceptionally violent. However the hold you have described would never be used and is not something I have ever been trained in in the 20 Years I have been having regular training.

Mainstream schools are not places where people have much experience with restraint. They do have to act to prevent harm to others. It is possible with any restraint that there will be marks.

Personally (and I have two kids with asd who have been restrained) I would be focused on whether this is the right setting for your child. If you and the school think it is and can work together then you need to ask them to get a team in to train key people in safe restraint. I have done a course and I have to say though that a one day course and then no restraints has not set me up to restrain safely. The reason why staff in specialist schools are able to do it well is the training and frequency of it in their role.

If the school think that you will be complaining about every incident then they will not want to work with you and the ultimate result will be your child being managed out or eventually excluded especially if the violent and disruptive behaviour continues. I think this is a situation where it isn't about who is right or wrong but about what you think is going to lead yo the least worse outcome for your child.

With my dd I had lots of things to complain about but ultimately she was not suited to her mainstream school anymore. As soon as she was placed in her specialist school the incidents went down. They were so managed correctly.