Petition Review the law on use of force on children in educational settings

Review Section 93 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 which provides all school staff with the power to use reasonable force to prevent pupils from hurting themselves or others, from damaging property or causing disorder. We believe the law should give priority to a therapeutic approach.

More details

Mainstream and specialist schools, and pupil referral units (to name a few) have the right to use reasonable force (which is normally used to control or restrain) on young people, to prevent them from hurting themselves or others, from damaging property or causing disorder.

This can be used without parental consent and often is used on children with autism and other SEN. Children as young as 6 with autism are routinely being restrained by adults and this can contribute to ongoing trauma into adulthood.

Therapeutic approaches must be at the forefront of supporting these children.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

40 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 40 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

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10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 23 November 2023
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