Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009

247Recording and reporting the use of force in FE institutions: England

After section 85C of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (power of members of staff to use force) insert—

“85DRecording and reporting the use of force by members of staff: England

(1)The governing body of an institution within the further education sector in England must ensure that a procedure is in place for—

(a)recording each significant incident in which a member of the staff uses force on a student at the institution (a “use of force incident”); and

(b)reporting each use of force incident (except those where the student is aged 20 or over or provision made under subsection (5) applies) to each parent of the student as soon as practicable after the incident.

(2)The governing body must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the procedure is complied with.

(3)The procedure must require that a record of a use of force incident is made in writing as soon as practicable after the incident.

(4)In discharging their duty under subsection (1), the governing body must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State for the purposes of that subsection.

(5)A procedure under subsection (1) must include provision to the effect—

(a)that a person (“R”) who would otherwise be required by the procedure to report an incident to a parent must not report it to that parent if it appears to R that doing so would be likely to result in significant harm to the student; and

(b)that if it appears to R that there is no parent of the student to whom R could report the incident without that being likely to result in significant harm to the student, R must report the incident to the local authority (within the meaning of the Children Act 1989) within whose area the student is ordinarily resident.

(6)In deciding for the purposes of provision made under subsection (5) whether reporting an incident to a parent would be likely to result in significant harm to the student, R must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State about the meaning of “significant harm” for those purposes.

(7)In this section, “parent”, in relation to a student, has the meaning given by section 576 of EA 1996 in relation to a child or young person, but includes a local authority which provides accommodation for the student under section 20 of the Children Act 1989.”