Bill to be lodged at Holyrood to prevent restraint and seclusion in Scottish schools

An MSP will lodge a Bill which will seek to prevent the use of physical restraint and seclusion in Scottish schools.

On Tuesday, Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour MSP for Edinburgh South, will lodge the Bill after a lengthy consultation period which began in June 2023 after campaigners began to highlight some of the experiences faced by children in the classroom.

The Bill is being referred to as Calum’s law, named after Calum Morrison, who has epilepsy, autism and learning difficulties. He was left traumatised after he was restrained in school, aged 11 at the time.

In 2018, The Children and Young People’s Commissioner’s report, No Safe Place, reported that there were 2,674 interventions involving restraint and seclusion in 18 of Scotland’s local authorities.

Only 13 of those local authorities reported the number of children that were subject to those interventions – 386.

This reflects approximately 5.86 cases per child. Children with disabilities were disproportionately affected.

Johnson’s Bill offers six core principles that would go towards reforming current rules on restraint and seclusion in schools.

He would make it a requirement to record all such incidents to an existing Scottish governmental body, establish a role to monitor the approach to seclusion and restraint in schools and make recommendations for improvement, and inform parents and carers of each incidence of seclusion or restraint, detailing the circumstances and methods used.

The Bill, if passed, would also create a complaints process to provide a clear route for concerns over seclusions and restraint to be escalated, would provide a statutory basis for training for school staff, and require data including on the incidence of seclusion and restraint to be regularly published by the Scottish Government and reported to Parliament.

Johnson said: “Since the launch of the consultation period, my concern about the levels of violence in Scotland’s classrooms has increased.

“What has also been clear is that pupils, parents, guardians and teaching practitioners are deeply frustrated at Scotland’s current approach to the use of restraint and seclusion.

“Not only was this evident from the number of individual respondents who supported my proposed Bill, but also from the number of parents and guardians who responded with emotionally personal accounts of their children’s experience, which, at times, I found difficult to read.

“Today marks a huge step forward in this campaign, and under the Member’s Bill procedure, I will now seek support from members across the parliament in order to earn the right to introduce a Bill.”

Beth Morrison, mother of Calum and principal campaigner for Calum’s Law, said: “We are so grateful to Daniel Johnson MSP for his work on the Members’ Bill for Calum’s Law.

“In the last school year, we heard from 208 desperate families who told us their child had been physically and emotionally harmed because they had been subjected to the use of restraint and/or seclusion in Scottish schools.

“These are not large, out of control teenagers, they are small children – 33% were just six years old, 23% were five and there hasn’t been a single case involving a child over the age of eight this year. 91% of these children have autism or ADHD.

“The Scottish Government have incorporated the UNCRC into Scots law. The UNCRC is clear that restraint and seclusion must only ever be used as a last resort to keep a child safe from harm. Our evidence tells us that it is being used as a punitive response to distressed behaviour due to unmet needs in school.”

She added: “We are bitterly disappointed that despite being well aware of the problem, the Scottish Government continue to allow children to suffer bruises, injuries and emotional trauma every single day in school.

“This is happening on their watch and they have refused to protect our most vulnerable in law. That is utterly scandalous.

“Calum’s Law will uphold the human rights of all children, make sure the incidents are recorded and that education staff are given the training and support they desperately need to respond in the right way when a child is distressed. It’s the right thing to do.”

The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.