A CARDENDEN woman, who has been campaigning for years for a change in the methods of restraint in schools for disabled children, got a pre-Christmas boost when the Scottish Government agreed to issue new guidance.

Beth Morrison was brought up and educated in Cardenden and her family still stays in the village, although she now lives in Angus.

Children's and disability rights advocate and founder of Positive & Active Behaviour Support Scotland- PABSS, Beth took up her campaign nine years ago after disabled son Calum was restrained by staff at a school in Dundee, and the injuries sustained by him in the situation, were seen to be consistent with a face-down restraint.

From that moment on she has strongly felt that something needs to be done to regulate what is allowable, and what is not, in methods of restraint for children.

Beth, who was chosen as 'One of the Most Outstanding Women in Scotland' in 2018, told the Times: "It happened to Calum because he had no language, he was distressed about something, of which we do not know, and the response by staff was to hold him down on the floor.

"It is not right and really there has to be ways that staff are given the right kind of training to deal with these sort of situations."

Beth added: "Its been quite a year, although its fair to say the Scottish Government were not always in agreement and it took a judicial review by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and Scotland's Children's Commissioner to force the change, but it needed to happen and now the Scottish Government have decided to act.

"We couldn't have a two tier system where parents were criminalised for smacking their child without causing injury, but teachers and education staff are allowed to use physical force causing injuries like bruises, abrasions, head and facial injuries, broken teeth and bones to children in their care and there's absolutely no accountability in law.

"The practice of restraint and seclusion in schools happens disproportionately to children with additional support needs and disabilities so they are effectively being discriminated against.

"I keep saying that I don't represent children who have the developmental and cognitive skills to behave willfully. The children I represent have additional support needs and disabilities. These kids often have severe communication problems and have no verbal language to say I'm hungry/in pain/can't cope with the lights/noise etc, and when their needs go unmet in schools, they become distressed and they use their behaviour to communicate because that's all they have. Schools see this as 'aggressive/violent and challenging behaviour'.

"When the child is seen as a 'problem', all too often the response to a child's distress is to use physical force to hold them down or drag them along school corridors to put them into isolation rooms often called some wonderfully misleading names like cool down/calm rooms/blue rooms/safe rooms, yet this is the reality. Parents are often not told and when the child can't tell, parents only find out when they start to question their child's bruises or injuries. This is absolutely a human rights scandal and our children must be protected from this kind of treatment".

Beth went on: "Again, if parents did this to their child in the family home, they would be prosecuted, yet out of the 436 cases I have in Scotland, not a single child has had any kind of accountability.

"We have to make sure education staff are give the right skills, expertise and resources to meet the child's needs. If the needs are met, the child is happy and happy children do not challenge.

"Its been a long nine years of campaigning. I started in Scotland, but I also took the campaign to Wales, Ireland and England. Wales published guidance this autumn and its out for consultation. Ireland, on Christmas Eve, announced they too are going to issue guidance, but England is trailing behind- although we raised £7,600 to start a judicial review against the Westminster Government which is now ongoing. I am sure we will get there and 2020 will be the start of things coming together".

She concluded: "I am determined to see this through. For a long time, I didn't think Education were on board, but that's changing too and last week the Times Education Supplement (TES) named me as one of their 'People of The Year 2019. That was pretty amazing, and I definitely now feel that the tide is turning.

"Hearts and minds are changing. That's got to be a really good sign. I'm not going away though, I will see this through till the end".