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Unread 03-05-2015, 10:31 PM
whiizz whiizz is offline
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Least restrictive principle is an approach or policy title that reflects the ethos of a setting in wanting to provide as many unrestricted opportunities as possible. Least restrictive principle will have set procedures/proactive strategies for helping children deal with their behaviour in an ongoing way and reactively for helping them to understand what happened preceding an incident/display of less appropriate behaviour.
A negative situation may occur in the following way:
Antecedent is what happens before the behaviour
Behaviour is the actions that are perceived as challenging behaviour or unwanted
Consequences are what happened as a result of the behaviour

Dependant on the severity of an incident, restrictive interventions may need to be put in place. Before some of these interventions can be used it is critical that staff are trained and experienced in knowing exactly when to use such interventions and that the staff are fully aware of the rights of both themselves and the young person.

• Social intervention – where harmful or destructive behaviour can be contained and moderated with the use of language including facial expressions and words, this intervention may be and should be used as a primary action. Within the environment that I work this will always be the primary tool in de-escalating a negative situation. It gives staff and young people an opportunity to communicate verbally so that everybody is clear about how a negative situation may have arisen and how things could be diplomatically resolved.
• Mechanical intervention – the use of devices to prevent or contain a person’s movement such as highchairs, stair gates, barrier erection, locked doors. Within the environment that I work it is illegal for staff to lock doors on young people. We are neither a prison or a secure unit and a young person has the right to the freedom.
• Physical intervention – using actual bodily contact which should only be used with clear justification and in guidance of the settings policies and procedures and staff training. Physical intervention may only be used upon ensuring safeguards are in place for the member of staff and also the person involved and when social and mechanical intervention is not sufficient. Moderate risk to prevent danger to others should be expected but physical intervention may not be used if there is a substantial risk of injury or it conflicts with any individual care plans in place. The explanation for physical intervention given in England's EYFS 2008 pg 27 is:
Physical intervention should only be used to manage a child’s behaviour if it is necessary to prevent personal injury to the child, other children or an adult, to prevent serious damage to property, or in what would reasonably be regarded as exceptional circumstances. Any occasion where physical intervention is used to manage a child’s behaviour should be recorded and parents should be informed about it on the same day.

• Planned Intervention - using evidence from observations, assessments, care plans and risk assessments. A planned intervention may be ensuring that a member of staff sits with a child at group times to support, facilitate and moderate their behaviour towards staff or other children.

• Emergency intervention – actions taken to diffuse/deflect unpredicted events

After a negative situation, assessments and analysis will be done to determine how a negative situation may be easier handled or prevented in the future. Interventions will be introduced and Interventions may include:
• Learning and development support
• Anger management
• Behaviour support classes
• Restorative justice
• Support to address substance misuse
• Support to address mental health issues

If the interventions are successful and there is a positive change in the young persons behaviour then an action plan may be developed to help continually improve the young person’s behaviour:
Action plan that may include:
• identify the positive changes the child/young person needs to achieve
• identify the barriers to achievement
• identify achievable and realistic goals for the child/young person to achieve
• identify the interventions required
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