PLEASE NOTE: New Standards Published

April 2011: The Standards no longer apply, Tri.x have published a web enabled version of the new Children’s Homes and Fostering Standards, please follow this link:

www.minimumstandards.org

4. Care and Control	Size:
Behaviour Management

	OUTCOME Children assisted to develop socially acceptable behaviour through encouragement of acceptable behaviour and constructive staff response to inappropriate behaviour.
	STANDARD 22
22.1	Staff respond positively to acceptable behaviour, and where the behaviour of children is regarded as unacceptable by staff, it is responded to by constructive, acceptable and known disciplinary measures approved by the registered person.
22.2	The registered person has a clear written policy, procedures and guidance for staff based on a code of conduct setting out the control, disciplinary and restraint measures permitted and emphasising the need to reinforce positive messages to children for the achievement of acceptable behaviour.
22.3	Measures of control and disciplinary measures are based on establishing positive relationships with children which are designed to help the child. Such measures are fair and consistently applied. They also encourage reparation and restitution and reduce the likelihood of negative behaviour becoming the focus of attention and subsequent disruption to the placement.
22.4	The consequences of unacceptable behaviour are clear to staff and children and any measures applied are relevant to the incident, reasonable and carried out as contemporaneously as possible.
22.5	Any measures taken to respond to unacceptable behaviour are appropriate to the age, understanding and individual needs of the child, for example taking into account that unacceptable or challenging behaviour may be the result of illness, bullying, certain disabilities such as autism, or communication difficulties.
22.6	Sanctions and physical restraint are not excessive or unreasonable.
22.7	Physical restraint is only used to prevent likely injury to the child concerned or to others, or likely serious damage to property. Restraint is not used as a punishment, as a means to enforce compliance with instructions, or in response to challenging behaviour which does not give rise to reasonable expectation of injury to someone or serious damage to property. (For schools which are children’s homes, this does not prevent the use of restraint in circumstances permitted by s550A of the Education Act 1996.)
22.8	The registered person’s policy on the use and techniques of physical restraint and other forms of physical intervention, and the circumstances in which they may be used, is consistent with any relevant government guidance on approved methods of restraint and physical intervention. All staff of the home are aware of, trained in, and follow in practice the registered person’s policy. Training covers reducing or avoiding the need to use physical restraint. All staff have signed a copy of the policy and evidence of this is retained on their personnel file.
22.9	A record of the use of restraint on a child by an adult is kept in a separate dedicated bound and numbered book, and includes the name of the child, the date, time and location, details of the behaviour requiring use of restraint, the nature of the restraint used, the duration of the restraint, the name of the staff member(s) using restraint, the name(s) of any other staff, children or other people present, the effectiveness and any consequences of the restraint, any injuries caused to or reported by the child or any other person, and the signature of a person authorised by the registered person to make the record.
22.10	A similar and separate record of any sanctions will also be kept in the same way.
22.11	The registered person will regularly monitor the record books to monitor compliance with the home’s policy, procedure and guidance and to identify any patterns in incidents leading to disciplinary or restraint action becoming necessary. The monitoring will also address the implications for the care of individual children and current care practice. The registered person records any comment on the appropriateness of individual uses of sanctions or use of restraint, together with any subsequent action taken, and signs against each entry to confirm the monitoring has taken place.
22.12	Measures of control, discipline and restraint used by the home are made clear to the placing authority, child, parent/s or carers before or, in an emergency placement, at the time the child is to move into the home.
22.13	Children are encouraged to develop a proper awareness of their rights and responsibilities. Staff and children alike are clear that each individual has rights and responsibilities in relation to those who live in the home, those who work there and people in the community. Where there has been physical intervention, the child will have the right to be examined by a registered nurse or medical practitioner within 24 hours.
22.14	All children are given an opportunity to discuss incidents and express their views either individually or in a regular forum or house meeting where unsafe behaviour can be discussed by children and adults. When disciplinary measures or restraint are used, children are encouraged to write or have their views recorded and sign their names against them if possible in the records kept by the home.
22.15	Unless the registered person can demonstrate that this is not appropriate, the home has procedures and guidance on police involvement in the home, which have been agreed with the local police and which staff are knowledgeable and clear about.
22.16	Staff meetings address issues of control and agree practicable and acceptable means of responding to behaviour and control problems of both the current group of children and of individual children in the light of their histories, any current problems and placement plans. [Regulation 17]