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G3ZHI > ALL 16.12.08 10:03l 51 Lines 3531 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: child restraint rethink
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Sent: 081215/1645Z @:GB7SYP.#19.GBR.EU #:44398 [Barnsley Local] $:44398-GB7SYP
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Child custody restraint rethink
The UN says pain should not be used as a form of control
The government has promised a £4.9m "overhaul" of the way restraint techniques are used on children in custody in England and Wales.
But force may still be used in "exceptional circumstances", it says.
Most of the recommendations in a report by two independent experts are to be implemented, ministers say.
The review was set up after criticism at the inquests in 2004 on teenagers Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood, who died in secure training centres.
Earlier this year, MPs and peers on the Joint Human Rights Committee demanded an end to the use of painful restraint methods on youngsters.
They had suggested some permitted techniques also contravened the UN guideline stating that restraint "should not involve the deliberate infliction of pain as a form of control". Occasionally it is necessary to use restraint as a last resort to protect other young people and staff
Children's Minister Beverley Hughes
But the review found "widespread acceptance that it is sometimes necessary to use force to restrain young people in the secure estate, particularly when failing to do so would place a young person or others in danger," the Ministry of Justice said.
Key findings and recommendations of the review, conducted by social services professionals Peter Smallridge and Andrew Williamson, included:
In exceptional circumstances, it may be appropriate to use "pain compliance" restraint techniques to ensure staff and children's safety.
All staff should have consistent and comprehensive training in the awareness of risk factors in restraint, the monitoring of warning signs in young people and the need to take action quickly.
Certain restraint techniques, including the "double basket" hold, should be permanently banned.
Use of this technique, which involves holding someone with their arms crossed behind their back, was suspended last year along with a jab to the septum under the child's nose.
It followed the inquest into the death of Adam Rickwood, 14, who killed himself shortly after the latter method was used on him.
Gareth Myatt, 15, died after three officers held him in another type of restraint method known as a "seated double embrace".
In response to the experts' review, the government is to undertake a two-year programme to "address concerns, remedy problems, and introduce greater consistency".
'Last resort'
Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said: "Our priority is to ensure rigorous safeguarding for young people in custody.
"The independent chairs of the review have balanced the need for appropriate safeguards and monitoring with an acceptance that occasionally it is necessary to use restraint as a last resort to protect other young people and staff."
In March, the Joint Human Rights Committee had found that four detention facilities for children aged between 12 and 17 in England had used restraint techniques about 3,000 times a year - equivalent to 10 times per child.
The Ministry of Justice said this figure referred to techniques which were not intended to cause pain and could be as mild as putting an arm around someone to hold them back.
More severe "distraction techniques", which are intended to inflict pain, can involve bending an offender's thumb back or jabbing them in the lower ribs.
They had been used 169 times between February 2006 and March 2007 and only when an offender was being violent.
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