by Ali Wilkin

edited by John Urquhart

On the 9th April, the BBC released a report by investigative journalist Noel Titheradge on the use of prone restraints on a 12 year old autistic child at a school for learning disabled children in Leeds. The CCTV of the incident shows 5 staff callously restraining the 12 year old child. Experts have described their conduct as “too brutal, unnecessary, and unlawful”. This happened in a ‘calm’ or seclusion room - these have been described as resembling a holding cell. The report is part of an ongoing investigation by the BBC into ‘calm’ or ‘safe’ rooms. The report follows the emergence of CCTV of non-speaking pupils being abused at a school in London last year. 

The management of Springwell Leeds Academy North say that they have investigated this matter on ‘multiple’ occassions. They claim that staff at their school have ‘no case to answer’ in relation to this incident. Nevertheless, experts in the use of restraints and prone restraints on learning disabled children who have reviewed the CCTV have highlighted how brutal and traumatising a child being dragged face down to the ground by multiple adults will have been. Eric Baskind has highlighted that increasing the hostility of the situation is “the very opposite” of what those adults should have been seeking to achieve. 

The management of the school startlingly consider this to be a ‘difference of opinion’. That same management have claimed that the CCTV footage shown by journalists is “selective”. But we wish to be clear there is no context in which such violent restraint is necessary.

Guidelines for the restraint of children have been in place for more than 13 years: NICE, Ofsted and NHS England all place an emphasis on restraint reduction, and all concur that it should never involve prone restraint. In 2019 a parliamentary investigation was done into children’s experiences of restraint and the physical, mental, and emotional impacts of restraints. This led to the publication, in June of that year, of government guidance into reducing the use of restraints, which MENCAP called “long overdue”.

It is increasingly clear these guidelines are insufficient - while on the enforcement side, years of deliberate underfunding of SEND education also play their part. We plan to conduct a policy review into this specific issue in the immediate future.

But our preexisting policies could also help. A National Care Service, where caregivers are both fully trained in their specialised area, and properly recompensed for their specialist skills, is now absolutely vital. It cannot be clearer that learning disabled and autistic children are being failed, not just educationally, but as whole people who require their environment to be adapted to their needs. It is plain that the adults entrusted with their care must have specialised training in the impacts of their disabilities. Most of all it is badly needed that we invest in disabled young people directly, investing in them with the same belief, and the same optimism, that we all have long wished to see this country invest in our able bodied children. 

Ultimately we want to be clear that whether they will be able to go on to work or not, each and every one of them has the ability to give something of great value back to their community.