Posted By Zoe Barnett
Hello Mike

Our local branch of the NASUWT was kind enough to provide a sample risk assessment for dealing with violent/aggressive pupils, although not necessarily within the SEN sector. If you'd like a copy please let me know.

Do you use specialist "restraint" techniques? I hesitate to use the term restraint as it has unpleasant connotations but the techniques are helpful in preventing incidents from escalating and of course from stopping students from hurting themselves. Most courses feature a strong emphasis on prevention -i.e. reading body language, understanding issues such as social communication problems and so on. Your LEA will probably have a Behaviour Support Team or similar who can advise about this.

There is the possibility that blood borne pathogens can be transmitted via bites and scratches and you will probably need to include this in your risk assessment/vaccination/occupational health strategies.

Any child with potentially violent or aggressive behaviour should have this noted in his or her Statement of SEN. This information can be built into the risk assessment, obviously taking due note of any confidentiality and privacy issues.You may have a problem in that some areas have limited SEN facilities and that children with, say, profound autism are in SEN schools but specialist provision just doesn't exist - which can mean that the child's problems are not being managed properly.

Finally, stress from this type of problem is a sensitive problem because teachers and carers - who I know from personal experience are remarkable people - often feel that they should "make allowances" for the child's difficulties, and this makes them more likely to take things from SEN students that they wouldn't put up with for five minutes in a mainstream setting.(This of course doesn't help in the social education of the children either.) Culture is often the key here, in making staff feel that reporting the problem is acceptable. You may find that a confidential reporting/counselling service is a useful step in addressing the problem.

I hope this rather rambling reply is of use.

Regards

Zoe

Posted By Eddie Newall
The following web site may be useful.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg69.htm

Advice for employers on managing violence at work, from the Health and Safety Executive.