Vision statement five: Scotland must strive to become a nation that does not restrain its children.
Organisational Progress
What is happening
Organisations described a wide range of work underway to improve how services are designed, delivered and experienced, so that Scotland does not restrain its children. The workforce spoke about the weight of responsibility they carry, the importance of meaningful connection with children and young people, how conflicting definitions and processes can create self-doubt and the value of supportive environments.
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There is collaborative work across sectors to establish consistent definitions of restraint and restrictive practices and to ensure their implementation. The aim is to achieve accurate data collection and reporting, which is seen as essential for understanding the experiences of children and young people. Consistent definitions also help to avoid confusion and inconsistencies in approach between care and education settings.
The development and adoption of these definitions involve considering the language used and ensuring it is accessible and reflects the lived experiences of those affected. Organisations recognise that varying interpretations of restraint and related practices exist, and while definitions cannot eliminate this, they can reduce the range of interpretations through clarity and robust implementation. The definitions are also linked to children’s rights, emphasising the importance of understanding their purpose and function.
There is also focus on the practical application of these definitions, acknowledging the fluid nature of situations and the potential for overlap between restraint and restrictive practices. This includes recognising that supports may change mid-process and that individual settings may have adapted policies and procedures to meet the specific needs of children and young people in their care.
Trauma-informed and relationship-based approaches to supporting children and young people are being increasingly adopted. This involves shifting the focus from behaviour management to understanding the underlying needs and experiences of children and young people, particularly those who have experienced trauma. Staff are encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of children and young people's behaviour through a trauma-informed lens. These approaches emphasise the importance of building strong, positive relationships between staff and children and young people. Organisations are creating conditions for attentive care, recognising that a worker's ability to connect with a child's needs can be a deciding factor in maintaining safety and averting physical restraint. This includes providing training and support for staff to develop their skills in de-escalation and communication.
There is also recognition of the importance of addressing staff needs and emotional well-being. By creating spaces for reflection and validation, staff are better equipped to support children and young people's emotional needs. This involves acknowledging the challenges and difficulties that staff face in violent or unsafe situations and providing them with the support they need.
Collaboration is underway to develop and review guidance on restraint and restrictive practices. This involves engaging with various stakeholders, including individuals with lived experience of restraint, children and young people, and professionals from different sectors. The aim is to create guidance that is practical, accessible, and reflects the diverse perspectives of those affected.
The guidance is designed to provide clarity on expectations for services and to support inspection bodies, advocates, parents, and young people in understanding their rights and best practices. It includes resources and tools that can be used to support staff in making informed decisions and promoting positive outcomes, and emphasises the importance of prevention, planning, and de-escalation strategies to reduce the use of restraint.
There is recognition that guidance should not be static but subject to ongoing review and revision. This involves incorporating new knowledge and research, as well as ensuring that children and young people's meaningful participation is integral to the process. The guidance also addresses the need for consistency across different settings, particularly where care and education overlap.
Work is underway to address the need for oversight and regulation of restraint and restrictive practices. This includes advocating for an independent regulatory body to oversee these practices in education settings. The aim is to ensure effective implementation of guidance and to provide a clear framework for regulatory responsibilities, recording and reporting procedures, and data oversight.
There is collaborative work to improve data collection and reporting procedures. This involves providing clear rationales for data collection and explaining how the data is used and shared. The goal is to support positive outcomes and connect with a "what works" framework that supports the reduction of restraint and restrictive practices.
Discrepancies in reporting requirements between different sectors are also being addressed. This includes clarifying the remit of regulatory bodies and ensuring that data is collected and reported accurately. The focus is on creating a system that encourages transparency and accountability in the use of restraint and restrictive practices
What is being learned about change
This section draws together learning from the materials reviewed about how change is being understood and shaped in practice. It reflects what is emerging across accounts of work underway, rather than evaluating effectiveness or setting direction. The focus is on identifying patterns in how approaches are being adapted, what appears to make a difference to experience, and where learning continues to develop.
Consistent and accurate data is fundamental to understanding and improving practices related to restraint and restrictive supports. Without clear, shared definitions and reliable data collection methods, it becomes difficult to assess the true impact of these practices on children and young people. This realisation is driving efforts to establish standardised definitions and reporting procedures across different sectors, enabling more informed decision-making and targeted supports.
Key Elements of Success
- Establishing clear, consistent definitions of restraint and restrictive practices.
- Implementing standardised data collection and reporting procedures.
- Ensuring data reflects the lived experiences of children and young people.
- Using data to inform decision-making and target support.
What to stop and what to change
- Lack of clarity and consistency in definitions.
- Discrepancies in reporting requirements between different sectors.
- Data not reflecting the lived experiences of those affected.
By increasingly recognising the importance of relational and trauma-informed approaches in supporting children and young people, there is learning that understanding underlying needs and experiences is crucial for developing effective supports. This involves shifting away from behaviour management techniques and towards building strong, positive relationships based on empathy, attentive care, and trust.
Key Elements of Success
- Understanding children and young people’s behaviour through a trauma-informed lens.
- Building strong, positive relationships between staff and children and young people.
- Creating conditions for attentive care and empathy.
- Supporting staff well-being and addressing their vulnerability.
Examples
- Providing training and managerial support for staff to develop skills in de-escalation and communication.
- Creating cross-organisational peer spaces for reflection and validation.
What to stop and what to change
- Considering physical restraint in isolation from relationships and organisational cultures and resource pressures.
- Overlooking the emotional impacts on workers and the importance of staff welfare.
- Reverting to defensive positions in pressurised situations.
What is being learned about change
There is high value placed on collaborative approaches to developing and reviewing guidance on restraint and restrictive practices. Engaging with diverse stakeholders, including individuals with lived experience, children and young people, and professionals from different sectors, leads to more practical, accessible, and effective guidance. This collaborative process ensures that guidance reflects a wide range of perspectives and is tailored to the specific needs of different settings.
Key Elements of Success
- Engaging with diverse stakeholders in the development and review of guidance.
- Ensuring guidance is practical, accessible, and reflects diverse perspectives.
- Incorporating new knowledge and research into guidance.
- Ensuring children and young people’s meaningful participation in the process.
Examples
- Organisations coming together to advocate for co-produced, updated practice guidance.
- Addressing the need for consistency across different settings, particularly where care and education overlap.
What to stop and what to change
- Guidance that is static and not subject to ongoing review and revision.
- Failing to incorporate the perspectives of individuals with lived experience.
- Lack of clarity on expectations for services and inspection bodies.
Effective oversight and regulation of restraint and restrictive practices require a holistic approach that considers various factors. This includes establishing independent regulatory bodies, improving data collection and reporting procedures, and addressing discrepancies in reporting requirements between different sectors. The goal is to create a system that promotes transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Integrating data-driven insights with relational approaches, recognises the need for both accurate information and empathetic understanding in practices. Collaborative efforts are shaping guidance and regulatory frameworks, highlighting a move towards shared knowledge and responsibility in supporting children and young people. These interconnected learnings reflect a commitment to continuous improvement and adaptation within the sector.
Key Elements of Success
- Establishing independent regulatory bodies to oversee restraint and restrictive practices.
- Improving data collection and reporting procedures.
- Addressing discrepancies in reporting requirements between different sectors.
- Providing clear rationales for data collection and explaining how the data is used.
Examples
- Advocating for an independent regulatory body to oversee practices in education settings.
- Clarifying the remit of regulatory bodies and ensuring accurate data collection and reporting.
What to stop and what to change
- Lack of a clear framework for regulatory responsibilities and data oversight.
- Data collection without clear rationales or explanations of how the data is used.
- Discrepancies in reporting requirements between different sectors.
Sources Referenced
The purpose of the below citations and summaries is to ensure that sources used are clear and accessible. Web links to the sources are provided, where possible.
Document summaries are provided for any document where analysis produced more than ten ‘coded segments’. ‘Coded segments’ refer to portions of a document that analysts identified and labelled as relevant to the key themes for each Vision Statement.
All documents that have informed the development of the Vision Statement, even if they had fewer than 10 coded segments, are cited in the ‘Additional Sources’ box below.
This report on the Reflection and Action Learning Forum (RALF) was written by Laura Steckley from the University of Strathclyde, and Sarah Deeley and Gemma Watson from CELCIS. It was created to share the work of the RALF project, which aimed to help residential childcare workers and services become better at reflecting on their work. The project was funded by The promise Partnership, a Scottish Government grant supporting improvements in care for children.
The RALF project, which ran for 24 months from spring 2023, focused on developing reflective work cultures and individual reflective skills, especially concerning physical restraint. The report details how RALF sessions, which combine action learning with deep reflection, help participants think, feel, do, and be more effectively. It highlights positive impacts such as increased self-awareness, confidence, and empathy, and a shift from problem-solving to asking useful questions.
While individual impacts were widely reported, service-level changes were less frequent, often due to challenges like time constraints and staff availability. However, some services saw benefits in areas like post-incident debriefing and care planning. The report stresses that RALF works best when there is strong organisational support, protected time, and clear communication about its importance. It concludes that RALF is making a significant difference in residential childcare practice, particularly in reducing physical restraint, but continued investment is crucial for its future.
Steckley, Laura, Sarah Deeley, and Gemma Watson. The Reflection and Action Learning Forum (RALF). CELCIS, 2025. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/spotlight/Scottish-Physical-Restraint-Action-Group/reflection-action-learning-forum.
In Safe Hands Yet? was published by ENABLE Scotland in 2022. It was written to assess the Scottish Government's progress in regulating the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, following a 2018 investigation by the Children's Commissioner and ENABLE Scotland's 2019 "In Safe Hands?" campaign.
Earlier investigations highlighted significant numbers of recorded incidents in a single school year, alongside variation in how incidents were recorded across local authorities. Subsequent advocacy and review activity has emphasised the need for clearer guidance, greater transparency and strengthened learning and training. More recent reporting indicates that some of this work remains under development, with national approaches to guidance, data and training not yet consistently in place.
Data collected by Positive and Active Behaviour Support Scotland between 2019 and 2021 indicated that children with additional support needs continued to experience seclusion and restraint, with some incidents resulting in injury. The reporting highlighted the absence of national data collection on these incidents and noted variation in how approaches were developed across the UK. It identified the importance of clearer guidance, shared learning and strengthened training to support more consistent, rights-respecting practice in education settings.
In Safe Hands yet? A Progress Report on the Campaign to Regulate the Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Scotland’s Schools. ENABLE Scotland, 2022. https://www.enable.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/InSafeHandsYet-Report-Oct-2022-FINAL-1.0-2.pdf.
This document is a response from the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG) to a consultation on the Children’s Care and Justice Bill, specifically addressing question 26 about clarifying guidance and law on physical restraint in care settings. SPRAG, a group of over 70 organisations formed in 2019 to reduce physical restraint in residential childcare, believes that changes to the law regarding restraint are not currently beneficial and could lead to negative outcomes. Instead, they strongly advocate for updated, co-produced practice guidance.
SPRAG's vision is to foster more empathetic ways of caring for children and adults in residential settings, aiming to make coercive forms of holding less necessary. Their response, informed by discussions with 16 member organisations, focuses solely on restraint and restrictive practices, defining these broadly to include seclusion, mechanical restraint, and chemical restraint. They emphasise the importance of children's voices, clear definitions, and consistent decision-making processes, recommending resources for children to understand their rights.
The group highlights the need for consistent definitions across sectors and warns against unintended consequences of legislative changes, such as staff fearfulness leading to "no-touch" policies or increased harm to children if physical restraint's "safekeeping function" is removed without adequate alternatives. They also stress the importance of trauma-informed training for staff, focusing on understanding children's behaviour rather than just managing it. SPRAG offers to contribute to the development of updated guidance, believing their expertise can help reduce the use of restraint across children's care settings.
Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG) Care & Justice Bill Consultation Response. Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), n.d. https://consult.gov.scot/children-and-families/childrens-care-and-justice-reforms/consultation/view_respondent?uuId=287690777.
This is a response from the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG) to a consultation on new guidance for physical intervention in Scottish schools. SPRAG was formed in 2019 with over 70 cross-sector member organisations and is hosted by the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection. It aims to reduce or eliminate physical restraint in residential childcare while upholding children's rights.
SPRAG welcomes new guidance on physical restraint but raises several concerns. They highlight that the proposed definitions for physical intervention do not match those already used in residential care, which could lead to confusion and unreliable data. They also find the guidance unclear regarding governance, regulatory responsibilities, and data oversight, suggesting an independent body should oversee these.
The group advocates for updated, co-produced practice guidance that includes a suite of resources, not just a single document, and is regularly reviewed. They stress the need for all education staff to receive regular, high-quality supervision, debriefs, and reflective practice, along with clear training requirements. SPRAG also recommends that the guidance clarify terminology and better distinguish between different types of assessments and restrictive practices.
SPRAG suggests expanding the guidance to include other forms of restraint and practice examples. They also recommend changes to recording and reporting advice, including clearer definitions of who reports incidents and more open-ended questions in data templates to capture nuanced information. Finally, SPRAG emphasises the importance of a relational approach, trauma-informed care, and attachment-aware practices, advocating for ongoing review of the guidance with children's participation.
Physical Intervention in Schools Guidance Consultation Response by the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG). Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), 2022.
Who Cares? Scotland—a national independent membership organisation for care experienced people, dedicated to supporting, empowering and amplifying the voices of Scotland’s care community—provided targeted analysis of their existing evidence for The Promise Story of Progress, sharing material that mapped to the relevant vision statements and contributed insight into how their internal data, participation activity, and qualitative evidence could inform the experiential strand of the Promise Story of Progress.
Their reports reflected advocacy work carried out between 1st January 2020 and 30th June 2025, during which time Who Cares? Scotland advocacy workers supported around 4,800 individuals. Although the report findings do not represent the experience of every care experienced individual in Scotland, they highlight issues that need continued attention as Scotland works to understand what is changing and what still needs to be addressed.
An anonymised and abridged collation of these reports is available at: Who Cares? Scotland. The Promise Story of Progress: Vision Statement advocacy reports by Who Cares? Scotland (abridged). The Promise Scotland, 2025. https://www.plan2430.scot/media/r0jiy2pl/2025-12-17-the-promise-story-of-progress-vision-statement-advocacy-reports-by-who-cares-scotland_abridged.pdf
Engagement with Care Experienced Young People: Results and Recommendations to Inform Police Scotland’s 2024-27 Corporate Parenting Plan. Scottish Youth Parliament, 2024. https://syp.org.uk/project/engagement-with-care experienced-young-people/.
In Safe Hands yet? A Progress Report on the Campaign to Regulate the Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Scotland’s Schools. ENABLE Scotland, 2022. https://www.enable.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/InSafeHandsYet-Report-Oct-2022-FINAL-1.0-2.pdf.
Keeping the promise: A Local Perspective. The Promise Scotland, 2025. https://thepromise.scot/resources/2025/keeping-the-promise-a-local-perspective.pdf.
Morris, Mary, and Anthony O’Malley. Keeping The promise in Regulation: Our Revised Approach to How We Regulate and Inspect Services for Children and Young People. 23, no. 2 (2024): 86–93.
Morris, Mary. “Reasons to Be Cheerful: Factors Making a Positive Difference to Children in Residential Care in Scotland.” Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care 22, no. 2 (2023).
Physical Intervention in Schools Guidance Consultation Response by the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG). Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), 2022.
Re: Proposed Restraint and Seclusion (Prevention in Schools) (Scotland) Bill. Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), n.d. https://www.celcis.org/application/files/3517/0972/1557/Proposed_Restraint_and_Seclusion_Prevention_in_Schools_Scotland_Bill_Consultation__SPRAG_response.pdf.
Restrictive Practice 2024. Care Inspectorate, 2025. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/8207/Restrictive_practice_statistical_bulletin_2024.pdf.
Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG) Care & Justice Bill Consultation Response. Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), n.d. https://consult.gov.scot/children-and-families/childrens-care-and-justice-reforms/consultation/view_respondent?uuId=287690777.
Scottish Police Authority Corporate Parenting Plan 2024-2027. Scottish Police Authority, 2025. https://www.spa.police.uk/publication-library/corporate-parenting-plan-2024-27/.
Secure Care Pathway Review. Care Inspectorate, 2023. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/7293/Secure%20care%20pathway%20review%202023.pdf.
Steckley, Laura, Sarah Deeley, and Gemma Watson. The Reflection and Action Learning Forum (RALF). CELCIS, 2025. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/spotlight/Scottish-Physical-Restraint-Action-Group/reflection-action-learning-forum.
Whitelaw, Dr Ruby, and Ross Gibson. Preparing to Keep The promise: A Comparative Study of Secure Care and Young Offender Institutions in Scotland. Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), 2023. https://www.cycj.org.uk/resource/preparing-to-keep-the-promise-a-comparitive-study-of-secure-care-and-young-offender-instituions-in-scotland/.