Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2026 [Draft]
::This has been a difficult bill to fully get my head around, not because the problem that it seeks to address is unclear but because we must be honest about how it would work in the real world—in our classrooms, on the toughest of days for teachers and staff who are already under immense pressure.
I am also the grandparent of a wonderful young woman—if I can call an 11-year-old a young woman—with autism. We must take in her toughest days and the pressure that she feels and undertake to understand what she is feeling at that time.
For me, one of the most important parts of our committee’s evidence taking on the bill was hearing from parents and carers who have campaigned tirelessly for it. They talked about real harm, trauma and failure in the system. The evidence that we heard was heartbreaking. Families spoke of their children sustaining broken bones, severe bruising and deep psychological scars. One mother told us that her daughter was restrained on her first day of secondary school and that, 20-odd years later, she still cannot tolerate closed doors. That should worry every one of us.
My colleague Karen Adam spoke about the need for understanding of young people and children with additional support needs. It came out in the evidence that some teachers were under pressure or did not have that understanding. As a grandparent, I know how that can be difficult. My daughter, Jessica, seems like a superhero to me as she deals with Daisy and some of these issues. We have a three-year-old in the family who is being looked at to see whether she is on the spectrum, too, so we have a rather nice, neurodiverse family unit in our family. We need to understand.
It can be difficult for people when they see a young person who is like that. I remember seeing some of my grandchildren’s first breakdowns related to autism. It can be scary and frightening at times, so I can understand why it would be difficult for teachers in a professional position.
However, ignoring the very serious concerns that the EIS has raised is not an option. During stage 1, the EIS’s evidence was clear and consistent in its message, and Tom Britton of the EIS told us something that we cannot brush aside:
“Without the context of more funding and more staff, it is difficult to get beyond that.”—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 1 October 2025; c 102.]
He is absolutely right. We cannot legislate as if staffing levels, workload and resources are abstract issues. To make the bill work properly and safely, we will require more staff. That raises very real questions. Are we talking about additional teaching staff, specialist support staff or administrative staff to handle reporting and monitoring duties? Those decisions will land squarely at local authority level, and they cannot be ducked.
Our teachers are already working in a very challenging environment. They are managing increasingly complex additional support needs and growing administrative burdens. The EIS warned us that, if the bill is poorly implemented, it will risk creating a report culture that is based on fear rather than learning. That is not scaremongering; it is a legitimate concern from a workforce that wants to get it right. We should be clear that our teachers are not the problem.
For the bill to deliver on its aims, several issues need to be addressed at stage 2. First, as has already been said, the current definition of restraint is so broad that it risks capturing ordinary, benign interactions with children.
Secondly, seclusion is the most difficult and sensitive issue in the bill. Many witnesses described seclusion as deprivation of liberty and potentially of human rights. We need to get that definition right. Data reporting is also an important concern, because we do not want to be in a situation in which data, rather than being used as a tool to make things better, is used as some kind of league table.
We must protect our children’s rights and support teachers without creating fear, bureaucracy or unintended consequences. There is a lot of work still to be done on the bill, and I am happy to work with others to ensure that we make the bill the best that it possibly can be.