Letter from Minister for Eduction - Verbal and Physical Abuse Policy - 1 August 2019

19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 4RR

Deputy Rob Ward

Chairman, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Scrutiny Office

States Greffe

Morier House

St Helier

JE1 1DD

01 August 2019

Dear Deputy Ward ,

Policy and support re verbal and physical abuse

Thank you for your letter dated 20th June 2019 regarding the above policy and support. The answers to your specific queries are detailed below:

1. What is the policy and guidance of the Education Department for staff to deal with incidents of verbal and physical abuse?

Positive Behaviour, Exclusions & the Use of Part-time Timetables

This policy and practice provides an overarching position for all employees within Jersey schools, colleges and settings required to deal with incidents of verbal and physical abuse. This policy is the basis for all schools, who are required to have their own similar / equivalent policy in place.

Jersey's Children First (JCF)

There is, in addition a clear recognition that children and young people presenting with

behaviour that challenges are often subject to difficult circumstances, whether in school, the home and often both. Jersey's Children First (JCF) has been developed as a whole workforce approach to ensure a robust, multi-agency response to understanding and supporting children, young people and their families in these circumstances.

2. How is the policy and guidance advised to staff and implemented within the Schools?

This Positive Behaviour, Exclusions & the Use of Part-time Timetables policy was reviewed and as with all policies subsequently shared with Head teachers. It would then be the responsibility of Head teachers to ensure all staff within their school, college or setting are fully appraised of all relevant policies.

In the course of the last 12 months, JCF has consistently and frequently been promoted across the Children's' system using a range of professional forums for cascading (Head Teacher; designated safeguarding leads; Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCo); Planning and Review Meetings (PARMS), media / communication platforms, JCF newsletter; CYPES briefing; Education social media.

3. Is there any requirement placed upon Head Teachers to record such incidents? See response to 4.
4. If so, what is the method of recording the same and how is the recorded data collated and analysed by the Education Department?

For incidents of violence and abuse against staff by adults:

• This is recorded via an e-form (icon on desktops) which triggers emails to CYPES department staff who follow up with head teachers and the staff member reporting, if necessary.
• Numbers have been low to date so each case is looked at on a case by case basis and no process for analysis has been implemented as yet.
• In the future, numbers will be included in department dashboards and presented regularly to DLT as part of the department KPIs presented by the Insight Team.

For incidents of violence and abuse against staff by pupils:

• Staff record behaviours in the schools MIS system (SIMS) on the pupil's record, currently in accordance with the schools behaviour policy.
• Schools will analyse behaviour patterns within their school, as per their behaviour policy and internal practices. Oversight of these recording practices are included as part of the school review process.
• Centrally, data is pulled by the Insight Team and numbers of incidences of assault and verbal abuse are added to a dashboard which DLT are presented (this has been sporadic in the past but will be more regular in the future).
• Coding is currently not standardised which makes further analysis difficult. A work stream has begun to consult with schools about a standard list to enable better reporting on behaviour across schools.

5. What emotional support is available to staff who have been the subject of such incidents?

The following italicised extracts are from the Positive Behaviour Exclusions & the Use of Part-time Timetables Policy and outline responsibilities towards staff who may have been involved in incidents involving verbal and physical abuse.

Safeguarding the Welfare of Staff  

Schools and settings have a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees and the health and safety of others is safeguarded. As part of this employers must:

• assess the risks to employees and others (including the risk of reasonably foreseeable violence) and implement steps to reduce these risks
• provide adequate information, instruction, training and supervision
• monitor and review arrangements put in place to reduce the risks to ensure they are effective
• establish transparent processes to acknowledge the hazardous nature of any foreseeable incidents, and of any restrictive interventions

The duty includes risks arising from both violence and the use of restrictive physical intervention (RPI)

Post-incident Support  

After incidents (whether RPI or otherwise), the child / young person and the staff involved should be given emotional support and basic first aid for any injuries as soon as possible. Immediate action should be taken to secure medical help for injuries that require other than basic first aid. All injuries should be recorded in accordance with the school or setting's procedures and reported as appropriate to the health and safety officer.

Schools and settings should ensure that appropriate lessons are learned from instances regardless of whether RPI has been used. This will usually involve de-briefing, post-incident review (see Appendix 7) and monitoring of the use of RPI (if applicable).

The process should consider individual plans and wider policies. Reviews could involve a facilitated staff team discussion about the warning signs of an impending incident, whether any previously agreed behaviour plans were followed, what de-escalation strategies were used and how effective they were, and what might be done differently in future.

It is good practice to involve the child / young person and, wherever possible, parents / carers, advocates and other relevant representatives in planning, monitoring and reviewing how and when restrictive interventions are used. If the child / young person and parents/carers are not involved this should be documented and reasons given.

As soon as possible after the use of RPI, the member of staff involved should be de-briefed by an appropriate manager to allow for reflection and the manager to deal with the emotions raised by the incident. This would support staff learning and professional development.

Children / young people should have separate opportunities to reflect on what happened, and wherever possible a choice as to who helps them with this.

Families of children / young people should also have the opportunity to participate in post-incident reviews – though this may not always be appropriate.

I trust the above information is sufficient and demonstrates the wide ranging policy, procedure and practice that is in place to ensure that we always aim to deal with verbal and physical abuse effectively to support our staff, students and their families.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me again. Yours sincerely,

Senator Tracey Vallois Minister for Education

D +44 (0)1534 448394 E t.vallois@gov.je

States Greffe: Scrutiny

Senator T.A. Vallois Minister for Education Education Department PO Box 142 Highlands Campus St. Saviour

JE4 8QJ

9th July 2019 Dear Minister,

Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

I write further to the Quarterly Hearing that took place on Friday 21st June. You will recall that questions were asked about incidents of verbal and physical abuse upon staff in local Schools.

The Panel would like to request some further information about the policy and support available to staff in these instances. Specifically, could you please advise:-

1. What is the policy and guidance of the Education Department for staff to deal with incidents of verbal and physical abuse?
2. How is the policy and guidance advised to staff and implemented within the Schools?
3. Is there any requirement placed upon Head Teachers to record such incidents?
4. If so, what is the method of recording the same and how is the recorded data collated and analysed by the Education Department?
5. What emotional support is available to staff who have been the subject of such incidents?

I would be grateful of your response to this letter by Friday 26th July. It is the Panel's intention to publish your response along with this letter on the States Assembly website.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy R. Ward

Chairman, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

Scrutiny Office | States Greffe | Morier House | St Helier | Jersey | JE1 1DD Tel: 01534 441080 | Fax: 01534 441077 | email: scrutiny@gov.je

Website: statesassembly.gov.je/scrutiny