Use of seclusion in schools to be brought to an end

New guidelines have been published which should bring an end to the seclusion of children in schools as a form of punishment.

The Department of Education guidelines for schools to deal with behaviours of concern and crisis situations state that the placement of a student involuntarily in any environment in which they are alone and physically prevented from leaving, is “inappropriate in the school context and should not be used”.

The new rules also state that the physical restraint of a child should only be carried out strictly as a measure of last resort and only where there is an imminent risk of serious physical harm or injury to the student or the safety of others.

They require all incidents of physical restraint to be reported to the school authorities, and from next September to the National Council for Special Education.

This information will be collated by the Department of Education and included in an annual report on the extent of physical restraint in schools.

In 2018 the association for people with intellectual disabilities, Inclusion Ireland, published a report documenting the experiences of children who had been subjected to restraint or seclusion in educational settings here.

It called for regulations to govern the use of restraint and seclusion practices on children in schools.

The guidelines published today were trialled in 15 special schools between November of last year and February.

The Department of Education has said that varying levels of training in the new measures will be made available to staff in schools.

This will range from online webinars and information sessions to more detailed training for schools who demonstrate a clear need.

Special schools would be prioritised for this kind of training, it said.

However autism charity AsIAm has said that while aspects of the guidelines – such as the ban on the use of seclusion – are welcome, the new measures are not rights-based, child-centred or robust enough.

AsIAm CEO Adam Harris said the organisation had expressed this concern to the Department last October.

“[We] specifically expressed our views that the guidelines did not adequately safeguard autistic children and may in fact conflict with the obligations of the Department and NCSE in terms of the Children First Act.

“Despite waiting years, the guidelines produced by the Department provide a very low level of protection to autistic children most at risk of restraint,” he said.

“The processes of consent, training, documentation and scrutiny will be far lower than those in a range of health and social care settings and indeed in our prison system.

“These guidelines will see a State body, the NCSE, receive potentially large quantities of information relating to child protection with no ability to investigate and without a formal referral pathway this to Tusla, the appropriate statutory authority appropriate to investigate such concerns”.

Mr Harris said it was “disappointing” that the department was publishing the guidelines “at a time in which adequate political scrutiny is not possible”.