New Zealand Gazette – 2017 – No. 89

Page 12

✨ Physical Restraint Guidelines



NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE, No. 89 — 1 SEPTEMBER 2017

  1. Staff must complete a Staff Physical Restraint Incident Report[^1]. Use the form attached to these guidelines, or other suitable template. The staff member who applied the physical restraint should sign the incident report, as well as the Principal or Principal’s delegate.

  2. Place a copy of the Staff Physical Restraint Incident Report and any other relevant forms, eg an injury form, in the student’s file. Make the copied forms available to the student’s teacher/s and the student’s parents or caregivers.

  3. Report all incidents of physical restraint to the Ministry of Education[^2] and the employer (boards of trustees, sponsors of partnership schools kura hourua, and managers of private schools). Use the form: Information for the Ministry of Education and the Employer specified in Appendix 1 of the rules. A copy of the form is also included below.

  4. The debriefing forms should be completed by the Principal or delegate.

  5. Share information on physical restraint incidents with the Board of Trustees via the Principal’s report. Only share this information in a session that excludes the public.

Staff physical restraint incident report

  • This must be completed as soon as possible and always within 24 hours.
  • The incident report should be signed off by the staff involved, any staff who witnessed the incident, and the Principal or Principal’s delegate.

Information for the Ministry of Education and the Employer (boards of trustees, sponsors of partnership schools kura hourua, and managers of private schools)

Note: If the Principal applied the restraint, a delegated senior management team member should sign off the report.

Staff reflection form

  • The staff member who applied the restraint should complete this as soon as possible and always within 24 hours.

Physical restraint debriefing form (staff)

  • Within two days of the incident, a debriefing with the staff involved should be held by the Principal or Principal’s delegate. Another member of staff who was not involved in the restraint should attend.
  • If a behaviour specialist from the Ministry or an RTLB is supporting the student’s team, they should be part of the debriefing process.

Notes: The Principal is responsible for facilitating the debriefing unless they are the person who applied the physical restraint. If this is the case, a suitable senior leader in the school should take this role. If police have been involved they should be invited to the staff debriefing too.

Physical restraint debriefing (parents or caregivers and, if appropriate, the student)

  • The parents or caregivers should be notified and involved in discussion about the incident with the Principal or Principal’s delegate as soon as possible so they can monitor their child’s physical and emotional wellbeing at home.
  • The parents or caregivers should be given the opportunity to discuss the incident and invited to become active partners in exploring alternatives to restraint.

Note: The staff member who applied the physical restraint should not be part of this meeting.

Appendix 1: Staff physical restraint incident report form

Report completed by Date of incident Date of report
Name of student

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Online Sources for this page:

Gazette.govt.nz — PDF NZ Gazette 2017, No 89




✨ LLM interpretation of page content

🎓 Guidelines for Registered Schools in New Zealand on the Use of Physical Restraint (continued from previous page)

🎓 Education, Culture & Science
Physical Restraint, Guidelines, Registered Schools, Student Safety, Staff Wellbeing, Teachers, Authorised Staff, Legal Framework, Seclusion Ban, Board Responsibilities, Communication, Review, Good Practice, Risk Assessment, De-escalation Techniques, Physical Contact, Preventative Techniques, De-escalation Techniques, Student Support, Escalation Management, Restraint Techniques, Police Intervention, Reporting, Incident Documentation, Individual Behaviour Plan