Meeting of the Parliament 24 March 2026 [Draft]
That is what all hostages say, so we should express our concern about Daniel Johnson’s future.
Beth Morrison’s campaign has been going on for 11 years, and anyone who is involved in politics knows that that is a long time. It is a tremendous commitment that has, I am told, involved her speaking to 3,000 families and bringing together people from across the country who have had similar experiences to hers. In a recent communication to us, she said:
“The children aren’t naughty, they’re scared”.
That offers a different perspective on how we should view restraint and seclusion.
The campaign has involved two different phases. The first phase was to develop guidance that involved the adoption of best practice, understanding what the young people experience and considering what the response from the educational establishment should be.
The second phase was to bring that into law. The fact that there was a need to do so says something about how we view guidance. Often, guidance is produced, it sits on a shelf and it is ignored, along with all the other guidance that has been produced. If we feel the need, on every occasion, to put something into law, we need to consider carefully how we bring together guidance, because it is often viewed by professionals—not only in the education world but across every part of our public sector—as having a somewhat diminished status.
We need to think very carefully about that, because if we go down the route that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland highlighted in her evidence to the Education, Children and Young People Committee, which would involve putting other areas on a statutory footing, that would introduce significant complication into our law. Elevating a very complex set of issues by putting them on the statute book is not a simple matter. We need to consider all that. I fully understand that, when particular cases are brought forward, they should be elevated to a higher status than that of others, because they are incredibly important. However, we need to look holistically at how we drive forward guidance and legislation to ensure that they are complete and are considered in the round.
I do not have a lot of time left, but I recognise the anxiety of many unions across the board, which came together throughout the process to express concerns about workload and definitions. We need to consider their concerns, which we have reflected in the stage 3 amendments.
This issue is part of a wider debate. This session of Parliament has been dominated by debates about behaviour, violence, ASN and absence, and restraint and seclusion are part of that mix. We need to consider everything in the round to ensure that our classrooms are a safe place to be, as well as a good place to have a great education.