Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2026 [Draft]
::I am delighted to speak on behalf of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. I begin by thanking the member in charge of the bill, Daniel Johnson, for introducing such an important bill. I also apologise for intervening on him five minutes into his speech—I did not realise that he had only six minutes.
Daniel Johnson’s proposal gave the Education, Children and Young People Committee, as the lead committee, the opportunity to discuss the important issue of how to ensure that restraint and seclusion are used only as a last resort in schools. I thank my committee colleagues for their work on the bill and everyone who provided evidence, either in person or by responding to our call for views. In addition, I thank the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee and the Finance and Public Administration Committee for their scrutiny of the bill.
I put on record the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s thanks to everyone at the Donaldson Trust who generously gave their time and shared their thoughts and insights on the bill when the committee visited the campus in Linlithgow last year.
However, the biggest praise must go to two individuals without whom we would not be here today. Beth Morrison and Kate Sanger have been campaigning for more than a decade for a change in the law on restraint and seclusion. I know that Kate cannot be with us today because she is attending a family funeral, but I saw Beth and Calum coming into the public gallery. Without doubt, Kate and Beth are the most determined, passionate and articulate campaigners for change, and this Parliament has an opportunity to reward their hard work by voting for the bill tonight. I believe that we simply would not be here today were it not for their efforts.
We must think about the fact that Kate and Beth got involved as a result of terrible circumstances in their families. In dealing with the issues that Laura had to face, Kate, as a mother, could have tried other routes to get answers and not embarked on a campaign that has taken years to get here. When Calum came home from school that day, unable to articulate what had happened to him, Beth could have sat there and thought about what she could do. She could have complained or done various other things, but she tried to get change. When that did not happen, she lodged a petition. When the petition did not work, she put forward the bill, along with Daniel Johnson. It is that type of tireless effort that makes me very proud to be standing in Parliament today, supporting the bill.
The committee unanimously agreed to the general principles of the bill and welcomed the aim of putting the current guidance on a statutory footing. I am pleased to say that the Scottish Government accepted all of the report’s recommendations, some of them in part. We were concerned to hear of instances of inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion in Scotland’s schools, particularly in relation to children and young people with additional support needs or a disability.
As with all of the committee’s scrutiny, the devil is in the detail, and there were a number of areas that we felt needed to be addressed should the bill progress further today. First, consideration needs to be given to the definitions of restraint and seclusion. Although those definitions are broadly similar to the definitions in the current non-statutory guidance, we shared the concerns of witnesses that those broad definitions could lead to legal ambiguity or unintended consequences. Teaching staff, parents and carers all need clarity, and it is important that physical interventions that are not of obvious concern are not captured by the bill.
As our report makes clear, communication with parents and carers is key, and the bill would create a duty on schools to inform parents and carers when their child has been subject to restraint or seclusion. Like the member in charge of the bill, we were disturbed to hear that that was not happening already. In some cases, parents and carers were not told when their child or young person had been restrained or secluded. Given that, we said that such notification must take place on the same day and that a report should be made on any intervention no later than 24 hours after the incident occurred. The bill’s recording and reporting provisions are welcome and will provide an opportunity for school staff to conduct post-incident reviews and establish any lessons learned following an incident.
Finally, although the bill does not include provisions on mandatory training in the use of restraint and seclusion, it says that the guidance must include details of training for school staff. It also provides that the Scottish Government will maintain a list of approved training providers.
The Education, Children and Young People Committee supports the general principles of the bill. However, as I have set out today, there are issues that need to be addressed, and we have had an assurance from the member in charge that he is keen to address them. I say that on behalf of the committee.
On a personal note, I will end by saying that, when I vote yes to the bill tonight, I will be doing so to progress an important piece of legislation. More important, it will be my individual way of thanking and recognising Beth Morrison and Kate Sanger and the many other families they have represented on this long journey. At decision time, their efforts will, I hope, see the bill take a step forward towards bringing about improvements for our children and young people for which we have been waiting for so long.