Physical Intervention Working Group minutes: January 2020

Attendees and apologies

Representatives from the below organisations attended:

• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (Chair)
• Positive and Active Behaviour Support Scotland
• BILD
• Angus Council
• School Leaders Scotland
• CALM Training
• Scottish Government
• Stirling Council
• Enable Scotland
• Westwater Advocates
• Fife Council
• Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection
• SOLAR
• Education Scotland
• NASUWT
• First-tier Tribunal, Health and Education Chamber
• Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland
• Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
• EIS
• AHDS
• UNISON
• National Parent Forum of Scotland 

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

The Chair welcomed all members to the meeting, and all attendees introduced themselves. Apologies were noted from the below organisations:

• Scottish Youth Parliament
• Highland Council
• Mental Welfare Commission Scotland
• Glasgow Adverse Childhood Experiences Hub
• South Lanarkshire Council
• Association of Scottish Principal Education Psychologists

Terms of reference

Amendments to the terms of reference were noted, which will be published on the Scottish Government website when finalised. 

Work plan

The group discussed the 5 recommendations that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland had made, which the Deputy First Minister agreed that the Scottish Government would implement. These are:

• The development of a piece of human rights based guidance to minimise the use of restraint and seclusion, as part of a suite which ensures the appropriate links with IEI2 and with other policy areas including ASN, Traumainformed Practice, Child Protection and Safeguarding, Positive Relationships and Nurture
• the involvement of children, young people and their families, as well as other key stakeholders, in the development of this guidance 
• the involvement of children, young people and their families, as well as other key stakeholders in the one year review of the policy
• a commitment to consider the restraint and seclusion data collected by local authorities as part of the one year review, and to publish this alongside the other evidence collected by the Government, to inform its assessment of the success of its preferred voluntary approach. At the same time, to reconsider the benefits of collection and analysis of local data at a national level on an ongoing basis
• a commitment, should that review not clearly demonstrate improvement against an agreed set of indicators, to take action to place the guidance on a statutory basis, and to include specific requirements to record incidents of restraint and seclusion

Governance and next steps

The Scottish Government outlined a proposal to enable the group to achieve these asks. It was agreed that there would be three sub groups formed, to develop national definitions on physical intervention and seclusion, to draft new national guidance on physical intervention and seclusion, and develop a standard dataset which will include wider consideration of recording/monitoring processes where
physical intervention and seclusion has taken place.

It is the aim of the Scottish Government to publish this new national guidance by January 2021. The introduction of the standard dataset will take a longer period of time. It is anticipated this will take approximately 18 months. It was requested that when the new national guidance is being developed links are made with other areas, such as social care/health to ensure that there remains a consistent approach.

A proposed initial structure for the new national guidance was discussed, it was agreed that the sub group responsible for drafting the guidance would take this forward.

The three sub groups will regularly report back to the main group to allow them to comment on progress. Much of this will be communicated to the group by email correspondence.

The Equality Impact Assessment and Childrens Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment are being developed and they will be amended throughout the development of this work. Copies of the assessments will be issued to the group by email for comment.

Action Points arising from meeting:

• Scottish Government officials will amend and re-issue the terms of reference following the suggested changes made by working group members
• members should contact Scottish Government officials if they wish to join any of the three sub groups that are to be established
• once established, meetings of the three sub groups will happen quickly to enable work to commence
• various literature and studies were cited during the meeting. Members were asked to forward links to these documents to Scottish Government officials who will share with the wider group

Action: Scottish Government/all

Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the working group will take place on 22 April 2020. Time and venue to be confirmed. The sub group meeting schedule will also be confirmed shortly.

February 2020