The findings from a survey of more than 7,000 teachers come as disquiet grows about the extent of such physical interventions in both special and mainstream schools and the traumatic impact it can have on pupils.
But England’s Children’s Commissioner, parents and campaigners are concerned that some schools use restraint too frequently and “inappropriately” in ways that can escalate behaviour problems and harm the pupils, who often have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They want better training and guidance for teachers.
“These children’s stories are appalling,” Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza told The i Paper. “No child should be physically restrained for such long periods or in a way that causes them harm.
Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England wants restraint used less in schools (Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire)Tom Bennett, a behaviour adviser for the Department for Education (DfE) said he had “no doubt” excessive force was sometimes used but that parents expected teachers to keep their children safe.
Danger for teachers
“You have to teach everyone, including psychopaths and sociopaths,” Mr Bennett added. “A 14-year old boy can be like a six foot man throwing punches at you.”
The DfE said restraint had “a significant and long-lasting effect” on pupils, staff and parents and that it wanted to minimise its use. Dame Rachel said it should be used “infrequently” and “only in the most serious cases”.
It found that more than a quarter (26 per cent) of mainstream primary teachers said they had had to restrain a pupil in the last half term; along with more than half (52 per cent) of teachers working in special SEND or alternative provision schools.
Pupils with SEND most ‘at risk’ from restraint
Many of these pupils are educated in special schools where, the Teacher Tapp polling finds, 80 per of teachers have had training on restraint in the last two years.
But a growing proportion of pupils with SEND are now educated in mainstream schools where a lack of training on restraint is a much bigger problem. Teacher Tapp found that 71 per cent of mainstream secondary teachers had never had any, along with 40 per cent of those in mainstream primaries.
‘They restrained him aged 4 . I hate them for it’
James (not his real name) curled into a ball and cried in his first weeks in reception, at the mainstream primary school in a town in northern England he attended from 2022
“His teachers just ignored him then because he wasn’t breaking anything or hurting anyone,” his mother, who wants to remain anonymous told The i Paper. But in the run-up to Christmas, James, who is autistic, tried to escape school through a hedge.
“This was the first time he was restrained,” his mother said. He was aged four at the time. “I thought they must have needed to do it. I accepted it.”
The i Paper has seen school records showing that James was violent and abusive towards staff. But when the restraints became “daily” and he came home covered in bruises, his mother began asking questions about how the school dealt with his behaviour.
“I was told he was throwing things, so I asked, ‘Why can’t you just move the stuff?’ But they said it was their policy to restrain…
“He is still panicky if I reach for his hand to stop him running across road because he was restrained so much.
“They thought it was the right thing to do but it wasn’t and I hate them for it. I just can’t imagine that teachers, many of whom are also parents, would think it was an okay thing to do.”
One mother told The i Paper how her son “stopped talking to me and was having nightmares” following “constant restraints” at a special school in the South East when he was eight.
Becky Gillespie, heads the UK division of ICARS and said it had been contacted by increasing numbers of parents about restraints “endured by their children”.
Britain’s largest teachers’ union the NEU told The i Paper restraint should “only ever be used as a last resort” and condemned its “inappropriate” use. The union’s leader Daniel Kebede said teachers needed more support in dealing with behaviour, that is “often related to [pupils’] unmet special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)”.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede says: “Inappropriate use of restraint should not be happening in our schools’ (Photo: Jess Hurd/NEU)Overwhelmed children ‘pinned down’
Emma Dalmayne, chief executive of support group Autistic Inclusive Meets said restraint was a growing issue in mainstream schools. “I’m increasingly hearing from parents about children being dragged back to their chairs by their arms or pinned down, because they’re so overwhelmed by noisy classrooms that they try to remove themselves from them,” she said.
The lecturer in public health at the University of Bedfordshire, says that the cases his group has helped with suggest that the rise could be linked to an increase in diagnoses of autism, and that many schools, particularly mainstream ones are “more stretched than ever”.
The DfE said it was committed to minimising the use of “force and restrictive interventions” in schools and was “currently looking at what updates should be made to the guidance”.
‘I could smell the fear on my daughter’
Becky Gillespie could smell “the fear” on her daughter when she came home from school. “I used to think it was body odour. It was awful,” she said.
The next morning, she would be curled up in blankets beside her parents’ bed. Their adopted daughter Ann (not her real name) had been left “terrified” by her at experience at Hall Cliffe School. But it took them more than 18 months to find out why.
When Ms Gillespie was first told that Ann, then aged 13, had been “held” after “wobbly” days at the independent special educational needs school near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, she thought it meant teachers holding her hand.
‘Ann’ when she attended Hall Cliffe School, where she was physcially restrained 158 timesIn fact, she’d been subjected to frequent and lengthy use of physical restraint that left the teenager with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
School documents show that during the five and a half terms she attended Hall Cliffe, Ann – who has learning difficulties and fetal alcohol syndrome disorder – was physically restrained by staff there 158 times.
The private company that runs the school, the Witherslack Group, says it has since changed reviewed and changed restraint practices at Hall Cliffe.
In a local authority document seen by The i Paper Witherslack representatives admit that the number of restraints Ann experienced was “too high”. Ms Gillespie – who had to request logs from the school to learn of the restraint – prefers the term “horrific”.
She has decided to talk about her daughter’s experience for the first time to draw attention to the use of restraint that she says is becoming a growing problem in UK schools.
Held down by four men
Hall Cliffe records,seen by The i Paper, reveal how Ann who suffers from extreme anxiety was held down by four men.
The local authority record includes an account from Ann – unchallenged by Witherslack at a meeting attended by its representative – of being “taken to the ground by lots of teachers” and of being held on the floor at the school for as long as 45 minutes.
Government National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidance recommends a maximum of 10 minutes for any single incident of physical restraint for adult mental health patients. There is no equivalent time limit in official guidance for schools – something that Ms Gillespie wants to see changed.
Ann left the school in October 2018. In March 2020 the school apologised and agreed to review its policies on restraint after the Ms Gillespie began a tribunal claim over the case.
A Witherslack Group spokesperson said all its schools were rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted and that it was trusted by hundreds of local councils and thousands of parents.
“We acknowledge that in this individual instance we did not always meet our high standards and we have apologised to those affected,” they said.
“In 2018, Witherslack Group undertook a review of physical restraint practices at Hall Cliffe School and implemented changes under a new leadership team, including a new accredited training and development programme, rooted in trauma-informed practice and positive behaviour support principles. The safety and care of pupils at Witherslack Group schools is our utmost priority.”
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