Restraining Letter

[Guest]

I recieved a letter today from a behaviour therapist saying i need to get a permission letter signed by the childs parents so we can restrain her son when he has one of his behavioural outbursts.

Has anybody else had to do this.

[Andreamay]

It is stated in our policy document that we will use restraint only if it becomes necessary ie.danger to themself,or another or our property

as it has come from an outside professional i would do it,do you already know this child?and do you think it possible you may have to?

[Guest]

yes, he's been with us a year, we do have it in our policy and parents have signed to say they have read the policies but we have been told you should always have a permission letter from the parents saying you can restrain him, we have had to hold him back as he has bad behavioral outbursts.

[hali]

we have a confidentiallty book that if we restrain we write it in the book and then parents get an explanation and sign the book

[Guest]

I wonder have you had any 'restraining' training? I have been asking my LA for this for ages.

 

I haven't ever been asked to produce such a letter but I can see the reasoning behind it, even though we have a restraining policy, our policy covers basic toddler tantrums and is not specific to a childs particular behavioural difficulty. I would think that each restraining letter would detail specific strategies agreed with the behaviour therapist. Have you done a risk assessment on this child? maybe start with that and an individual restraining/ managing behaviour policy could be written for this child.

 

let us know what you as i would be interested.

 

A few years ago I had a girl who was particularly vicious in her nehaviour, attacking other children herself or with scissors etc. My strategy after all esle failed ( ie: 1-1 supervision) was that I had to remove her from the room into a side room. Door left open with me in there supporting her 'time out' she would come to the room easily, holding hands, but this did backlash on me when a supply cover ex member of staff falsly alleged that I dragged her into the room by her sweatshirt, thus resulting in an Ofsted enquiry If I'd had a written procedure for her to show to ofsted then maybe the finger of doubt would not of layed at my door. Food for thought, procedures to ensure against allegations made against staff are very important these days.

 

 

Peggy

[Running Bunny]

I would hope that you had a good enough relationship with the parents so that you can discuss this and work together getting a letter or suitable plan of action to deal with the outbursts. It would be ultimately up to them if they agreed to this course of action or not - but you have to think about the child's safety as well as that of other children in your care and that of the staff too...

 

Like Hali says, should you ever restrain him physically it should be noted down (in an incident book) then dated and signed, possibly witnessed by another member of staff, and then signed by the parent on collection - like you would an accident, so if they noticed bruising or the child mentioned something you will be covered by witnesses and signed incidents.