Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department gives teachers and those working in schools on responding to a violent student with special educational needs.

We have issued advice to schools on the use of reasonable force, which makes clear that teachers have a specific power to use reasonable force to prevent pupils from causing injury to themselves or others, causing damage to property or from causing disorder. While there is no requirement for schools to have a policy on the use of force, we say that it is good practice to do so. Our advice says that any school policy on the use of reasonable force should acknowledge their legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children and children with special educational needs (SEN). Whether or not to physically intervene is down to the professional judgement of the staff member concerned and should always depend on individual circumstances and the needs of the individual pupil.

Additionally, we have laid before Parliament a new 0-25 SEN and Disability Code of Practice. This makes it clear that schools should seek to identify whether there are any factors, such as undiagnosed special educational needs, that might underlie disruptive behaviour. We also issued advice on Behaviour and Mental Health in June 2014 to help teachers differentiate between pupils that are simply behaving badly, and behaviour – whether it is disruptive, withdrawn, anxious, depressed or otherwise – that may be related to an unmet mental health need. This advice also outlined how these children can be supported.