9:00 pm
John Bangs: We have a slightly different view on part 11 on pupil behaviour. We supported the provision in the Education Act 1996 to protect teachers in relation to physical restraint. If there is any lobbying to water that down from other groups during this Bill, we will set up a counter-lobby to resist it. That was a necessary protection because teachers were being accused of child abuse when they were in fact intervening to protect children from their own actions and the impact of their actions on others. There is a theme running from that: teachers have to be protected sometimes in their use of professional judgment. The term “power” is very important when it comes to the search for weapons. If the head teacher or teacher believes, in extremis, that they had to search immediately for a weapon, they should not be subject to prosecution for doing so.
The reference in the accompanying notes to the Bill is to health and safety. That is absolutely right. It should be health and safety. Therefore, lumping together alcohol, drugs and stolen property, and simply describing that as an extension of the power to search without the necessary test—the protection of the teacher’s professional judgment when used to seek to protect other pupils and possibly staff—is partial and it could also kick back on the teacher themselves, because the burden of proof rests on the teacher’s shoulders that they were right to search for stolen property. We would like, and we have argued for this during discussions in the ministerial stakeholders group, a clause additional to the existing clauses on offensive weapons that does not specify areas, but says that when teachers search they do so on the grounds of imminent harm to pupils. That meets the test set out in the explanatory notes too, which is about health and safety.
We are concerned that the more you put in to specify items, the more you leave out. For example, if a teacher decides that a child has in their bag 200 cheap cigarettes from abroad and is going to sell them there and then, they are not covered by the Bill. If a teacher decides that some material brought in by a student is offensive, such as violent pornography, for example, it is not covered in the Bill but it could be dangerous and harmful to other pupils. We think that there should be a test within this clause to back teachers’ professional judgment when they decide to search, because they cannot call in the police or the designated security guard because there is not enough time, and the student resists. We have been pressing hard for that.
We are concerned about the recording of incidents of force to control or restrain pupils. We do not know where this has come from. We advise in all our behaviour guidance that incidents should be recorded for the protection of teachers. I do not think that any other union would take a different view. I am sure that we all take that decision. But Chris made a very important point. I am going to repeat it. This is again about head teachers’ professional judgment. The word “significant” is quite loose. If a head teacher decides not to report a significant incident to a parent because they believe that to do so endangers the child because the parent may take it out physically on that child when that child returns home, you are caught in a bind. Do you seek to protect the child because the incident is over and done with—the restraint has taken place—yet the parent is likely to exacerbate it? We do not know where this has come from and we are concerned about it.
There is another aspect, as we are on behaviour and I am very glad that Mr. Gibb raised this area, and that is the burden of school behaviour partnerships. Incidentally, we agree that there should be a requirement to have school behaviour partnerships. Our concern is the requirement to report to children’s trusts, and the statutory requirements of children’s trusts may come up later. We do not believe that collections of schools or individual school governing bodies should be required to report. It is not simply that it is an additional burden. We just do not understand the purpose. Reporting to a statutory body has to have some consequence other than just putting material in the report. The issue is how can behaviour partnerships help all schools.
Finally, on short-stay schools, we welcome the new title for pupil referral units but we are concerned that if the Secretary of State decides to move and close down a short-stay school, there has to be a replacement with sufficiency of provision.