Restraint and Seclusion

Provide support

Incidents of physical restraint or seclusion may be distressing for students and staff involved and for witnesses.

Provide support to students

When responding to incidents of physical restraint or seclusion schools must provide support to all affected students, including, but not limited to, physical and psychological needs and ongoing monitoring and recovery support.

‘Restorative sessions’ or similar approaches are not an appropriate intervention for situations that involve physical restraint or seclusion.

Schools may need to:

• consider what steps can be taken to promote whole of school student safety and wellbeing
• provide support to individual students. parents/carers must be notified of any support services offered to their child
• refer students and their families to specialist support services, including professional support services.

Provide support to staff

Support must be provided to staff following an incident of physical restraint or seclusion.

Mental wellbeing support is available to school staff and Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion Workforces following an incident involving physical restraint or seclusion.

The Work-related violence in schools post-incident checklist (PDF) is designed to support the wellbeing impacts of school staff when they are responding to an incident involving behaviours that are violent, aggressive, or otherwise pose a safety risk.

The Employee Wellbeing Response Team can connect schools with training, supports and services they need for complex employee safety and wellbeing issues. The team can be contacted via employee.wellbeing.response.team@education.vic.gov.au.

Professional counselling is available to all staff via the Employee Assistance Program.