Commenting on the publication of guidance by the Scottish Government for schools on physical intervention, Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said:

“Despite waiting nearly a year for the publication of this guidance, teachers and school leaders will despair the lack of practical guidance on offer from the Scottish Government.

“At a time of increasing levels of serious disruption and violence in schools, teachers and school leaders are being placed in an untenable position by the Scottish Government.

“Ministers should be clear that this guidance is unfit for purpose in its current form and further work is needed to better support teachers and school leaders.”

Mike Corbett, NASUWT Scotland National Official, said:  

“This guidance fails to uphold the Scottish Governments’ duty to ensure teachers’ right to work in safety, focusing almost exclusively as it does on the rights of children who may be subject to a physical intervention.

“It places the onus on teachers and school leaders who utilise restraint or seclusion of pupils while allowing local authorities and ministers to evade their responsibilities for providing sufficient resources and staffing to help schools manage and minimise the need for such action.

“The worry is that this guidance may do little to nothing to address the current patchwork of local policies and advice which frequently contradict one another and which are leading to inconsistencies in the way interventions are managed across schools.

“This would be a failure of the responsibility and leadership teachers and school leaders desperately need from their government on this critical issue of the basic safety of our school workforce and the pupils they teach.”