The International Coalition Against Restraint and Seclusion (ICARS) have been closely monitoring the public and organisational reactions to the abuse of children unearthed by the BBC Panorama’s broadcast, Undercover School: Cruelty In the Classroom, which aired on 17th June, 2024.
We are encouraged that the Children’s Commissioner for England acknowledges that this is not an isolated issue and expresses her intention to investigate the handling of safeguarding concerns involving vulnerable children.
We remain hopeful that the necessary changes identified by the Children’s Commissioner will be implemented by those responsible on a national and local level.
We urge the Department for Education to commission an independent, exhaustive, and rigorous review with active and meaningful involvement of disabled people’s organisations (including Autistic-led organisations) to identify and address the factors that contribute to ongoing abuse.
The reprehensible abuse exposed at Life Wirral was not a stand-alone incident involving a few rogue actors. This is a pattern that has been seen in many school settings including Life Wirral, Hesley, the Courtlands School in Plymouth, and in other UK settings.
Abuse of disabled children in public institutions is a systemic issue that requires a systemic response. The International Coalition Against Restraint and Seclusion has long advocated for extensive and far-reaching legislative changes to be made by the Westminster government aimed at protecting disabled children in schools from treatment such as the damaging abuse revealed in the broadcast.
However, we feel compelled to express our dismay at the public statement made by the Restraint Reduction Network (RRN), part of the British Institute of Learning Disabilities (Bild) group of charities.
In their statement, the RRN propose their “Six Core Strategy” approach to culture change and reducing restrictive practices as a framework for use in education. We have engaged in discussions with Bild Group personnel on this topic, including a meeting with the CEO, Ben Higgins, in June of 2023. Regardless of their good intentions, the strategies they promote have not sufficiently changed school cultures, and the abuse of vulnerable children continues.
Bild and its subsidiaries and affiliated initiatives and network have been funded by, or have been in partnership with, the UK government for decades, and this public funding has enabled them to extend their influence and ineffective systems and training across health and social care, and increasingly in education, as outlined in The ICARS Report: Restraint and Seclusion in England’s Schools.
The Life Wirral scandal follows a number of schools and institutions exposed by the media which have had Positive Behavior Support (PBS) embedded in their practices and had received training from companies accredited by Bild Act under the RRN Standards. The RRN’s response to these scandals appears to have been consistently to condemn the actions and then promote these approaches further, despite the lack of evidence of their efficacy.
Life Wirral’s use of Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) was documented in the school’s “Behaviour Management Including Discipline, Sanctions, and Exclusions” Policy. In addition, Wirral Life’s “Physical Intervention Policy – Use of Reasonable Force” Policy reveals that staff received training from a company accredited by Bild Association of Certified Training (Bild ACT), a Bild group charity.
In the policy appendix (pages 4-8), the name and logo of the restraint training company can be seen on polo shirts worn by men demonstrating 10 different restraint methods across 17 photos. What is also seen is the training industries rebranding and marketing of restraint under the euphemism “Positive Handling.”
While the specific head/neck restraint shown on the programme is not in the policy appendix, we are concerned that the illustration of ten restraints normalises dangerous and intrusive interventions. Effective approaches prioritise the bodily autonomy of children who need support with learning to better regulate their emotions and responses.
Recording and reporting, another of the six core strategies advocated by the RRN in their statement, was happening at the Life Wirral. The programme showed a staff member boasting about their abusive use of restraint on a child while recording “I guided him effectively” on the paperwork.
Regrettably, disabled and other vulnerable children continue to be disproportionately harmed within educational establishments that purport to use the approaches advocated by Bild with scant safeguards in place to protect children from physical, emotional, and psychological injury.
Of particular concern is the Bild Group’s use of PBS in health and social care settings, and now education, despite the controversy surrounding the use of PBS and the overwhelming condemnation of PBS by disabled advocates.
As well as the lack of evidence of efficacy of PBS, the Joint Committee on Disability Matters (Houses of the Oireachtas) report, “Aligning Disability Services with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, released in February 2023: Page 24, Sections 59 and 60, states:
The Committee are aware that positive behavioural support (PBS) which is reported as being consistent with human rights as documented in the UNCRPD and places a person’s behaviour within an ecological context 21 is considered by people with disabilities, activists, and advocates, to be founded on the same underlying approach as ABA. In this regard, there is evidence to suggest that PBS risks the same harms as ABA and there is significant opposition to the use of any of these related behaviourism-based therapies by the autistic community and their representative DPOs.
[…] Behavioural interventionist therapies are ultimately founded on modifying disabled people’s behaviour to meet goals decided by others; often to conform more closely with neurotypical communication, behaviour and/or norms and therefore the Committee believe cannot uphold the UNCRPD principles of autonomy, dignity, right to identity and freedom from non-consensual or degrading treatment.
Where Bild/RRN and Bild ACT logos are seen on company and institution websites, paperwork, policies, and procedures, parents and carers should be able to feel reassured that their loved ones are safe in these settings. These logos should signify excellence in oversight and cultural environments. Regrettably, these logos have come to be seen by many in disability communities as promotional and sales tools, providing cover for unscrupulous companies and settings to sanitise unethical, ineffectual, and harmful practices.
We ask that the RRN and Bild assume accountability and reflect on their role in the current system, a system we see harming children.
Respectfully,
International Coalition Against Restraint and Seclusion (ICARS) and the following signatories:
- Aaron Wright – Award winning author and Child rights advocate
- Amber Lane – Autistic Consultant Physiotherapist and ND Family Support Consultant
- Ann Memmott PcG MA
- Dr Beth Bodycote – Not Fine In School
- Beth Tolley MS, MIS
- Bobbi Elman Neurodivergent Autism Support ™
- Dr Chloe Farahar – Aucademy
- Caroline Keep – Teacher, Researcher, UCLAN
- Cír Doyle – Cofounder of Neuro Pride Ireland
- Chelsea Maldonado – Lived Experience Advocate, Consultant for 11:11 Media Impact
- Claire Thompson – Neurodiversity Ambassador for National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society
- David Gray-Hammond – DGH Neurodivergent Consultancy
- Elinor Barnham, Chief Administrator – Autistics Worldwide
- Emma Dalmayne – Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM)
- Emma Van der Klift – Broadreach Training, Author, Neurodivergent speaker,
- Erin Ekins – Autistic author and speaker
- Emily Price – Autistic Speech and Language Therapist
- Gillian Kearns – Co-founder NeuroPride Ireland and the Anti ABA Alliance Ireland
- Fiona Clarke – Autistic advocate and consultant
- Fleur Piacentini – Autism EDI and Trauma Consultant
- Hannah Turner – LMLP
- Heidi Mavir – Founder of EOTAS Matters™ , Sunday Times Best Selling Author, Public Speaker
- Helen Edgar – Autistic Realms
- Holly Sprake-Hill – Neurodevelopmental Specialist Occupational Therapist
- Jasmyne Esparza – Lived Experience Advocate
- Jess Garner – GROVE Neurodivergent Mentoring & Education LTD
- Joan McDonald, M.Ed (Autism) – Posautive
- Jorn Bettin – Autistic Collaboration Trust
- Joseph Redford – Autistic Consultant / Trainer
- John Joseph Greally – Autistic News
- Kabie Brook – Autistic Consultant
- Karen Melvin – Speech and Language Therapist
- Katie Munday – MRes
- Kate Jones – Autistic Psychotherapist – Autconnect
- Kay Louise Aldred
- Dr Ken Greaves – Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist
- Kieran Rose – Consultant, Researcher, Trainer – TheAutisticAdvocate.com
- Kim Mears – Speech and Language Therapist
- Louise Day – Speech and Language Therapist
- Lyn Wall – Autistic UKCP Psychotherapist
- Marion McLaughlin – Aurora Autistic Consulting
- Marguerite Haye – Specialist Teacher
- Mary Cartlidge – ND Social Care & Family Services
- Michelle Rose – Consultant – TheAutisticAdvocate.com
- Nem Kearns, Co-Director Disabled Women Ireland
- Dr. Nick Walker – California Institute of Integral Studies
- Norman Kunc – Broadreach Training, Public speaker, Disability advocate
- Rachel Cullen – Cullen Consultancy on Autistic Experiences
- Roanna Brewer – SEND National Crisis
- Rob O’Neill – Social Care Worker & Anti ABA Alliance
- Rowena Mahmud – Fledge Psychotherapy
- Ryan Boren – Stimpunks Foundation
- Sara Rocha – Autistic advocate
- Sarah Selvaggi Hernandez – Occupational Therapist
- Sarah Meharg – Occupational Therapist
- Silke Burmeister – Certified Peer-Counselor
- Tanya Atkin – ND Social Care & Family Services
- Tigger Pritchard
- Tracy Humphreys – BCED Access
- Tré Ventour-Griffiths – Autistic historian and sociologist
- Warda Farah – Autistic University Lecturer, Speech And Language Therapist, Consultant
- Dr. Will Dobud – Charles Sturt University
Groups / NGO’s / Charities
- Aurora Autistic Consulting
- Autism Rights Group Highland (ARGH)
- Aucademy
- Autistic Collaboration Trust
- The Autistic Cooperative
- Autistic Allies
- Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM)
- Autistic Mutual Aid Society Edinburgh (AMASE)
- Autistic News
- Autistics Worldwide
- BCED Access
- Broadreach Training
- Disabled Women Ireland
- Divergent Perspectives
- GROVE Neurodivergent Mentoring & Education LTD
- London Autism Group Charity
- National Autistic Taskforce
- NeuroClastic
- Neurodivergent Labour
- Neurodivergent Liberation Coalition
- Neurodiverse Connection
- NeuroPride Ireland
- Not Fine in School
- The Nurture Programme
- Posautive
- Scottish Ethnic Minority Autistics
- Stimpunks Foundation
- We Warned Them
Individual Signatories
- Ashton Last (UK)
- Christopher-Jack Webster (UK)
- Claire McKenzie-Sime (UK)
- Clare Cowie (UK)
- Corinna Mary Russell (UK)
- Izabela Kusyk (UK)
- J. Speakman (UK)
- Jane Ritchie (UK)
- Jen Summers (USA)
- Kendel Suhay (USA)
- Korina Gerolazou (UK)
- Maria Nelson (UK)
- Pamela Englett (USA)
- Rebecca Dawson (UK)
- Robert Prosser (UK)
- Roselyn Perry (UK)
- Sarah Lobb (UK)
- Sharon Spink (UK)
- Tracey Jones (UK)
If you would like to add your organisational or individual support for this statement please sign on here.
