FOI Request - Policy to Notify Parents of Restraint in Schools

Request 101003408994

1) What is the council's protocol for reporting instances of staff having to use restraint on pupils or exclude pupils from class? What justifies such action and what guidance is in place for supporting the staff, students and families involved?

2)  Does the school always inform parents when there is an incident of restraint or exclusion involving their child?

3a) How many incidents of physical restraint have there been each year in the last five years? Please break this down by academic year.

3b) Can you please identify the school involved wherever possible?

Response 25-10-2023

1) In the main, restraint is not used within our schools. For a very few amount of young people, there would be specific holds used as part of a support plan but these are trained for and have very specific reporting structures. They are only ever used to safeguard a young person or those around them. These are reported to parents and agreed upon before. Any unexpected "restraints", such as holding back from running onto a road, for example, would be part of a duty of care and reported to parents.

I am not sure about the exclusion from class (I am assuming not a formal exclusion from school).  If it means being removed to another area in the school, this would be a per school basis and it would be up to the school to decide what would be correct for the young person and the rest of the class. If this is a frequent occurrence, there should be discussions with the whole team around the child (including the young person (where appropriate) and parents) on if this is an appropriate strategy to support.

2) All incidents of restraint should be reported to the parent.  The exclusion from class would be a per school basis and, as above, if frequent, will be discussed as part of meetings around the young person.

3) Information on any such incidents would be held within individual pupil files; we would have to search through each file. At 13900 pupils x 5 minutes per file x 5 years = 5792 hours. This task would cost the Council in excess of £600 of staff time. In accordance with section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (excessive cost), we are therefore unable to comply with this part of the request.