Managing a Crisis Using Safety Intervention

Once a child is dysregulated (mobilisation or immobilisation) their social engagement system has shut down and attempts at social interaction will be met with a defence response. Therefore, at this time school adults ensure that social demand is reduced. School adults remain present and provide the child with attunement and safety cues through their expression, movement, and tone. School adults reduce language demand and ensure that they do not ask questions or give lots of choices. Any directions given are clear and not overly wordy, relying on routine as well as regulating and soothing activities if possible at these times. When a child is behaving in a way which means that they or others are not safe then making the situation safe is the primary need for both child and school adults. Physical containment can be used if it is considered by the school adults involved, that there is a threat to harm to the child, other children or school adults, or if there is a strong likelihood of damage to property. We use individual relational support plans and agreements to keep our children safe which are agreed with all school adults who care for the child as well as the child themselves.

If the incident required a safety escort or intervention a detailed write up is used for a restorative exploration of the problem, conflict or incident to support all people involved to share their story, thoughts and feelings, understand other peoples’ stories, thoughts and feelings and come to a shared understanding of what needs to happen to meet the needs of all people involved. Restorative actions, ideally decided by those involved, are explored as part of the process – be these letters of apology, agreements to support change or actions that show a willingness to repair the relationship. The restorative exploration is used individually, with pairs of children, groups of children, children and school adults and with parents on occasion in order to resolve conflict without shame.

Our restorative response to harm or conflict ensures that those affected are invited to share:

1. What has happened
2. What the impact has been on those involved: i.e. who has been affected and in what ways they have been affected
3. What needs to happen to put things right or to make things better in the future

This restorative framework is based on sound learning theory regarding how people relate to each other and how best to meet the different needs that can arise from conflict or harm.

Overall, the process often results in the restoration of a child’s sense of belonging to our school community and a positive impact on the child’s sense of security, self-confidence, self-respect and dignity.

Following the use of a restorative engagement, school adults then reflect on:

• What was the behaviour communicating?
• How are the unmet needs being addressed?
• What skills does the child need to develop?
• What additional learning opportunities are in place to enable this?
• What suggestions do the children have to support the repairing of the relationship?

There is always learning for school adults and the Senior Leadership Team as well as the child, and as a result of a restorative exploration the Relational Support Plan may need to be reviewed. This can involve further assessment of need, plans for relational support and intervention to develop skills and further opportunities to support the repair of relationships.

Using Safety Intervention

Safety Intervention is only used when absolutely necessary, in accordance with the law and with clear ethical values and principles which respect the rights and dignity of children, and in proportion to the risks involved. It is never used or identified as a long-term solution.

Safety Intervention can include, depending on the circumstances:

• A physical hold: a restrictive intervention involving direct physical contact where the intervener’s intention is to prevent, restrict, or subdue movement of the body, or part of the body of the child therefore restricting a child or young person’s independent actions
• Withdrawal: removing a child involuntarily from a situation or environment which causes anxiety or distress to themselves and/or others and taking them to a safer place where they have a better chance of composing themselves.
• Seclusion: supervised confinement of a child, away from others, in a calm, quiet and private area from which they may be prevented from leaving, where it is of immediate necessity for the purpose of the containment of severely disturbed behaviour which poses a risk of harm to themselves or others.

We aim to create a safe and secure school environment where violence, threatening behaviour or abuse to any member of the Libra community is able to be managed in a therapeutic way to maintain the child’s dignity, to keep everyone safe and to complete the rupture and repair cycle. Whilst we are extremely experienced with working with such behaviours, we take seriously all acts of violence and aggression against anyone and we work proactively as a team to manage these behaviours positively for the child whilst reducing the risk to everyone in our community.

We have chosen to adopt two methods of de-escalation and physical intervention that are accredited by BILD (British Institute for Learning Difficulties). MAPA (Management of Actual or Potential Aggression) is a comprehensive foundation course in dealing with confrontation, aggression and violence for staff who work in a care and education environment, with the aim of protecting the rights, dignity and safety of both the children in our care and the adults who work with them. We have two school adults who are qualified as certified MAPA Instructors to deliver training. Their registration is subject to annual assessment.

We also use National Federation for Personal Safety (NFPS) training, and we employ a school adult qualified to deliver this training who is required to undergo annual assessment. NFPS promotes training to reduce the need for physical intervention in our environment through conflict management and communications skills training with additional training around the use of physical intervention in the event that this is required. NFPS focuses on communication skills and how these can be used both to avoid conflict and to resolve problems once conflict has been defused. It then considers the factors that influence human responses in a conflict situation, for example triggers and inhibitors and moves on to ways in which to assess and reduce risks in conflict situations. This training emphasises how communication skills can be used to de-escalate conflict and post-incident issues, such as support and the importance of sharing good practice

Through our staff training we are guided by 10 key principles:

1. Safety interventions are a last resort after significant efforts at de-escalation. This means that all other approaches have been exhausted or the incident has occurred so quickly that there was no time for de-escalation techniques to be used.
2. We have adopted a safety intervention programme that acknowledges children’s rights and dignity.
3. We have adopted a safety intervention programme that provides for school adults safety and protection.
4. There is minimum use of force and no deliberate use of pain to effect holds.
5. Consideration is given to a child’s sexuality and background in terms of abuse.
6. We do not use holds against the joints (wrist/arm locks)
7. We avoid safety interventions where possible and we have clear strategies to manage when a child drops to the ground when in hold.
8. We have adopted a safety intervention programme that allows school adults to – phase up or down the techniques as circumstances and risk require.
9. We have adopted a safety intervention programme which supports individual and team approaches to managing challenging behaviour.
10. We have adopted a safety intervention programme which teaches the importance of verbal de-escalation skills.

Our safety intervention programmes are designed for use with children and have been effectively developed in a full range of social care and school settings, including physical and learning disabilities, mental health, involving open, secure and hospital environments.

Our training programmes are based on the recommendations of the Children Act 1989, Volume 5 and the Department of Health Guidance on Permissible Forms of Control in Children’s Residential Care (1993).  The package also complies with the requirement of current DfE regulations and Department of Education guidance as well as Health and Safety legislation, and the overall framework of civil and criminal law.