What are the warning signs of poor physical intervention training?
Warning signs include a provider that opens with techniques rather than risk, treats de-escalation as a warm-up, promises certainty and keeps staff ratios vague. Little is said about recording or review.
Why are some physical intervention courses dramatically cheaper than others?
Cheap courses cost less because something has been removed, such as tailoring to the school’s risks, time for practical work, safe staff ratios or the legal and ethical decision making that makes training defensible.
What does positive handling training cost — and what changes the price?
Price is driven less by the length of the day than by the risk being trained for, staff ratios, whether the content is tailored to the school and what support follows the course.
What the 2002 restrictive physical interventions guidance said — advice for schools
An explainer on the 2002 guidance for health, education and social care settings. Restrictive intervention should be exceptional, planned where foreseeable, proportionate, recorded and reviewed, and not all physical contact is restraint.
What the EHRC restraint in schools inquiry said — advice for schools
The EHRC inquiry asked whether schools know enough about their own use of restraint. Reading it through human rights and equality law, the post argues weak systems, not teachers, are the problem.
Restraint Reduction Training for Schools — Reduce Physical Interventions | Positive Handling
Restraint reduction is not an instruction to do nothing. The post argues it works as a system of leadership, policy, training, pupil-specific planning, environment and review, reducing avoidable intervention while keeping pupils safe.
Positive Handling Techniques: A Practical Guide for Staff
The guide separates de-escalation, guiding, escorting and protective positioning from restraint. Positive means purposeful and proportionate, not cheerful, and physical intervention stays a last resort with clear legal expectations.
Disproportionality in restrictive interventions: what schools should look for in the data
Reviews should ask who is being restrained, what kind of intervention was used, where and when, which staff were involved, and what changed afterwards, looking across SEND, ethnicity, age and looked-after status.
Searching for prohibited items: where reasonable force fits and where it does not
Force may be used to search for legally prohibited items, not items banned by school rules. The distinction matters, and staff need clarity on authority, item category, risk, communication and recording.
Behaviour support plans after restraint: the review schools cannot skip
The 2026 guidance expects behaviour support plans to be reviewed after incidents, and the post sets out seven questions for that review, covering known risk, early adult responses, necessity, proportionality and support afterwards.