Meeting of the Parliament 24 March 2026 [Draft]
I am grateful to Daniel Johnson for his work on the bill, and I pay tribute to him for that, but we should reflect on why it took a member’s bill to get us to this point. Why have successive Governments not acted on this most important issue for 27 years?
Parliament has acted for children before. After some delay, we incorporated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into our laws. Prior to that, we agreed to John Finnie’s plans to end exemptions that allowed parents to physically punish their child. Our getting it right for every child—GIRFEC—strategy aims to keep children and young people safe and protected from abuse, neglect or harm at home, at school and in the community. The bill is a natural next step on the journey towards protecting children’s rights by ensuring that seclusion and restraint are used only as a last resort and when there are genuine health and safety reasons for doing so.
The UNCRC is clear that protection from punishment and detention is crucial. It enshrines the idea that children should be isolated only as a last resort and for the shortest time possible. However, restraint and seclusion are sometimes used as frequent responses to behaviour that is perceived to be challenging. Pupils find that traumatic, not just at the time but for years afterwards. The bill has been drafted well to respond to exactly those concerns.
The bill is right to support staff, too, by making clear in law what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate restraint. We should be outlining best practice and alternatives that prevent or minimise the use of restraint and seclusion. The current inconsistency and unclear expectations leave staff exposed.
The requirement to notify parents, carers and guardians of the use of restraint and seclusion is the key provision in the bill. Those people have a right to know that those methods have been used within 24 hours of that happening. They should not find out by finding bruises on their child or through children coming home from school in tears. Along with the requirement to keep records, that will bring much-needed transparency.
The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland’s report “No Safe Place: Restraint and Seclusion in Scotland’s Schools” found that only 18 of 32 councils recorded all incidents. We must know when, how often and where restraint and seclusion are happening, because only then can we drive down their inappropriate use. I share trade union concerns about workload, but the answer to that is to ensure that staff are given time and support, and I ask the cabinet secretary to give assurances on that point.
Within the scope of the bill, Daniel Johnson has done well to draft legislation that addresses those concerns. However, inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion stems from broader failures in our education system. There is a failure to understand and cater to the additional support needs of the children or young people involved; a failure to recognise that every child and young person has rights; and a failure to properly fund additional support needs in all our schools.
We have nowhere near enough support in our schools for children with additional support needs, and those children are disproportionately affected. As Kate Sanger told us at stage 1, a child’s shout is often not aggression requiring restraint but distressed communication requiring love and understanding. Her communication passport, which helps staff to understand how and why a pupil behaves in the way that they do, should be in all schools. I ask the cabinet secretary to address that proposal in her closing speech.
As this session of Parliament draws to a close, there has been some good progress on children’s rights. The bill is a testament to that, and the Scottish Greens are proud to support it. However, as we move into a new session, we recognise that we still have much further to go to ensure that the rights of all children are respected, defended and promoted.