Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

Memorandum submitted by TreeHouse

About TreeHouse

TreeHouse is the national charity for autism education. We believe that education is key to transforming the lives of children and young people with autism, and the lives of their families.

TreeHouse runs a special school for children and young people with autism; provides information and training for parents and professionals; commissions research and campaigns for change.

Our vision is that children and young people with autism achieve their potential and live the life they choose.

About autism

Autism is a lifelong neurological condition that affects 1 in 100 children in the UK (Office of National Statistics, 2005). Autism affects communication, social understanding and imagination.

Autism is a spectrum condition which means that it can vary from mild to severe. This means that many children with autism will attend mainstream educational provision, with and without a statement of special educational needs (SEN) and additional support. TreeHouse’s research shows that the average age of diagnosis is 6 years and 7 months which means that many children will be attending school without a clear identification of their needs and without appropriate support in place. It is now possible to begin diagnosis of a child with autism at 18 months and routine diagnosis and support is available to children and families in other countries at an early age.

1. Autism and behaviour

1.1 Autism is a disability that affects communication, social skills and imagination. If children with autism have difficulty understanding and making themselves understood, then a whole range of communication and behavioural difficulties can result, in what can be perceived as ‘challenging behaviour’.

1.2 Many children with autism face significant difficulties in school, principally due to a lack of awareness and understanding of the challenges they experience and the impact that these have on their behaviour. TreeHouse research has found that:

· 43% of children with autism were excluded from school in a 12 month period [1]

· Over 40% of children with autism are bullied at school [2]

· 51% of teachers have never had any autism training [3]

1.3 We know that challenging behaviour is often a symptom of a child’s special educational need being unidentified and unmet. We also know from our work at TreeHouse School that, given the right interventions, children with autism who have displayed very challenging behaviour in the past can be supported to do well in school and achieve their potential.

2. How to support and reinforce positive behaviour in schools

2.1 Effective interventions for children with autism focus on:

· An approach centred on the needs of the child with input from parents and professionals as a team

· Early diagnosis and intervention

· Specialist, evidence-based multi-disciplinary support

· A behavioural approach which identifies the root cause of behaviour and puts in place a structured programme of support to create positive behaviour.

2.2 We have heard from parents across the country that when children with autism are criticised or punished for their behaviour, many children do not fully understand why their behaviour is considered inappropriate and it is not made clear to them what behaviour is more appropriate and why.

2.3 For that reason, practices like an exclusion from class, where there is no concerted effort to explain and model positive behaviour, do not actually address the core difficulties associated with challenging behaviour. One of the most important principles of behaviour is reinforcement – the strengthening of a behaviour as a result of something that has followed that behaviour. So if a child is excluded from class after being disruptive due to finding it difficult to concentrate in a class, the behaviour is likely to be repeated in the future because being sent out of the class resulted in escape from the difficult task.

2.4 TreeHouse and others working in this specialist field already have evidence-based, effective methodologies that achieve positive behaviours and good outcomes for pupils who have experienced exclusion in less specialist settings. We believe it is vital that this expertise is shared to enable other settings to provide appropriate support for pupils with autism.

3. The nature and level of challenging behaviour by pupils in schools, and the impact upon schools and their staff

3.1 It is important to consider that autism is a spectrum condition, affecting people to different extents, and so difficulties communicating and understanding affect children and young people with autism to varying extents. This results in different levels of challenging behaviour being displayed.

3.2 Difficulties often arise from a situation where a child with autism has not understood a teacher’s instructions, does not behave or carry out a task as expected, and then is told off for reasons they do not understand. An unacceptable reaction to not understanding why they are being told off can escalate and result in challenging behaviour, whether it was verbally expressing frustration at not being understood, or through rage or physical behaviour.

3.3 For example, if a child with autism is asked if they can pick up their school bag, they may well reply ‘yes’ rather than picking up their bag, as they will often interpret a question or remark in a very literal way as a result of their autism. If a teacher has little understanding of autism they might interpret this as a refusal to comply, and therefore begin a disciplinary route. This is a classic example of a teacher’s lack of understanding of autism leading to inappropriate use of punishment, which does not help the child to understand the situation, and therefore does not prevent the behaviour happening again.

3.4 One young person with autism elaborated:

"If an instruction is given to a full group, I will not always understand that I am included in this"

3.5 Irving, a nother young person with autism, told us:

"I used to get so frustrated at school when people didn't understand me, and when I didn't understand them. I didn't know how to control it and I'd just blow up. That caused loads of problems, getting into fights and things. But when I got the right support later on it really helped. My teachers and the other kids in the class understood me better so I got less frustrated. And I learnt ways to manage better too."

3.6 One parent told us:

"I worry that so often the simplest measures aren't put into place in schools to help our children even just cope with school .... their behaviour can be their only option of communicating that they are not coping.

"With Annie, she was constantly told off for things she had no control over. She was made to stand up in front of the whole school in assembly once for fidgeting with some paper. But what they didn’t take the time to find out was that she took it into assembly knowing she couldn’t cope if she couldn’t fidget. The staff never sat her at the back or sides and she was devastated to be told off for this.

She was also told off for calling out, being rude, not following instructions - all the traits of her diagnosed difficulties and they knew she desperately wanted to be seen as a good kid...it was all very unfair.

You can’t expect someone to do something without giving them the tools to do it first. If a child with autism is struggling with behaviour issues, I would ask lots of questions about their environment, support, routine etc first before assuming it’s due to just being naughty. Of course they are more than capable of this too, but in my opinion, if they are showing this behaviour at school or it is school related then it is more likely a lack of understanding on the schools behalf and that is the problem that needs addressing."

4. Approaches taken by schools and local authorities to address challenging behaviour, including fixed-term and permanent exclusions

4.1 The Department for Education statistics show that the most common reason for exclusion is persistent disruptive behaviour, accounting for some 29.6% of permanent exclusions and 23% of fixed period exclusions [4] . The same dataset confirms that 27% of children with SEN are excluded from school a year, which is 8 times the rate of children who do not have SEN [5] . TreeHouse research in 2009 found that 43% of children with autism had been excluded in 12 month period [6]

.

4.2 We also know that formally recorded exclusions are only part of the picture: 55% of parents told us that their children had been informally excluded from school [7] , which is when parents were asked to remove their child from school before the end of the school day without any formal procedure being followed. For the vast majority of parents whose children had been informally excluded, this was a regular occurrence.

4.3 We believe this high level of exclusions is a direct result of a lack of training and support available to teachers and schools to work with children with SEN.

4.4 One parent told us:

"Dan was suspended on two occasions for incidents that were quite clearly related to his autism. For example, tapping a pen on the table was classed as being deliberately disruptive even after I explained that he was using it as a coping mechanism and that it indicated that he was stressed. He is constantly punished for what they term "failure to comply" and being rude to the teachers (by correcting them when they make mistakes).

They put extreme pressure on him to comply with neurotypical expectations which of courses just stresses him out even more.

This is down to lack of understanding/awareness of autism and all that goes with it."

4.5 Exclusions have a far-reaching impact, as it can mean that children are denied access to the education that is so vital to fulfilling potential. Exclusions can also lead to a child’s disability being stigmatised and the child becoming socially isolated. A child being excluded as a result of their disability is also in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

4.6 The practice of exclusions also has a significant impact on the lives of families. When we surveyed parents in 2008, 44% reported that their child’s exclusion regularly required them to leave work [8] , which had a detrimental effect on their employment. One family told us that they planned their careers around the expectation of their child being excluded, with only one parent able to study or work at a time so that the other parent would be available to pick the child up from school if the school did not feel they could support them that day.

4.7 Exclusions also can result in children being placed in more expensive specialist settings, when earlier effective interventions would produce a better outcome for the child at a lower cost.

4.8 The percentage of tribunal appeals where autism was the primary need is the single largest category of all SEN appeals, with increased appeal cases from 14.7% in 2002 to 28% in 2008 and 25% in 2009 [9] . Tribunals can be the only route for parents to secure educational provision for their child after they have been excluded from school. This results in unnecessary cost and stress to families, schools and local authorities.

4.9 In a recent TreeHouse survey of teachers, we found that 51% had never received autism training, and only 10% had received autism training in the past 12 months [10] . Training needs to equip teachers and other school staff with a solid understanding of how autism impacts on a child’s abilities and how they can adapt their approach to accommodate that child.

4.10 We cannot expect all teachers to be specialists in autism, but all teachers will teach a child with autism at some point, so it is important that teachers do have access to specialist support if they are having difficulty in responding to a child’s needs.

4.11 TreeHouse School educates children with complex autism, many of whom have been excluded from several schools and have been out of school for a length of time. Only one child at TreeHouse has been excluded, and we believe that the pro-active approach to behavioural and communication needs that we take is central to our success in supporting young people with complex autism to manage their own behaviour and better access learning.

5. Ways of engaging parents and carers in managing their children’s challenging behaviour

5.1 TreeHouse believes that parents have a vital role to play in reinforcing and supporting an overall approach to behaviour, especially considering that children typically spend more time at home than at school. Consistency is important, particularly for children and young people with autism who can find it difficult to generalise experiences and learning. Key to this is ensuring that parents are seen as part of the team, that there is good communication between home and school and that issues in both settings are understood and responded to.

5.2 Every pupil at TreeHouse School has a home-school book, so that parents and school staff can easily inform each other about the child’s progress and behaviour and respond to any issues accordingly. Parents also receive training from the behaviour specialists at TreeHouse School in order to help manage the child’s behaviour at home and ensure a consistent approach is taken.

5.3 Our experience is that the vast majority of parents are keen to be involved in an overall approach to supporting their child’s education and managing their behaviour, but this relies on them having enough support. They need to know that their perspective is valued and their contribution forms part of a genuine partnership.

5.4 We believe it is important that parents are not ‘blamed’ for their children’s behaviour. The core difficulties associated with autism have a significant bearing on a child’s behaviour. While parents can contribute to an approach that helps the child manage their own behaviour, it is crucial to recognise that challenging behaviour results from the child’s disability, not from a style of parenting. School staff and policy-makers must understand this crucial point if they are to help build constructive relationships with parents of children with autism and therefore reduce challenging behaviour in schools.

5.5 TreeHouse surveyed parents and carers of children with autism in 2010 and we found that 58% of parents and carers have been openly criticised by members of the public for their child’s behaviour [11] . These attitudes must be challenged if we are to make progress in supporting young people with autism and their families to be included in their communities, and in eliminating disability discrimination.

6. How special educational needs can best be recognised in schools’ policies on behaviour and discipline

6.1 There needs to be absolute clarity in the school’s behaviour and discipline policies that autism is a disability that affects communication, which in turn affects behaviour and that, in line with the Disability Discrimination Act, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of disability. The policies should emphasise that reasonable adjustments must be made where learners have a disability and set out examples of what kind of adjustments can help prevent the need for exclusion.

6.2 We believe that behaviour and discipline policies should emphasise that reasonable adjustments must focus on proactive steps to reduce challenging behaviour. This could involve seeking to understand and address root causes of challenging behaviour, adapting communication and approaches accordingly, and bringing in behavioural specialists as necessary.

6.3 To improve access to specialist expertise, it is important for schools to form links with local and regional specialist hubs, so that advice and support is available when it is needed and exclusions can be avoided.

6.4 We also believe that schools need to make a commitment in their policies to providing general information and training to all staff on SEN and to ensuring that at least one member of staff holds a post-graduate qualification in SEN.

7. The efficacy of alternative provision for pupils excluded from school because of their behaviour

7.1 We know that 68% of the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) population is identified as having SEN [12] .

7.2 For alternative provision to meet children’s individual needs, staff working in these settings need quality autism training, including behavioural interventions. This will enable them to understand children’s needs and carry out interventions which are both effective in supporting the needs of children with autism, and relevant to effective behaviour management for all children.

7.3 There needs to be good communication between the alternative provision, the child’s main provision and the family in order to ensure that intelligence is shared, approaches are coordinated and there is a smooth, appropriate transition between settings. Furthermore, agreed timescales, clear objectives and regular progress reviews can ensure that alternative provision is clearly focused on improving behaviour and working towards reintegration.

7.4 For some children PRUs are the right intervention for their needs at a particular time. However, for others, a referral to a PRU is a result of a lack of identification of SEN and a lack of appropriate, specialist interventions in other settings. We believe this is a waste of an individual child’s potential and the resource could be better used in earlier effective intervention.

8. The Government’s proposals regarding teachers’ powers to search pupils, removal of the requirement for written notice of detentions outside school hours, and the extent of teachers’ disciplinary powers, as announced by the Department on 7 July

8.1 TreeHouse has serious concerns about the removal of the requirement for written notice of detentions, and removal of the requirement to record and inform parents about incidents when force has been used on their children.

8.2 Parents are vital partners in supporting an overall approach to helping children to manage their behaviour. Any partnership relies on good communication, and for behaviour to be understood and addressed, it is critical that both parents and professionals are aware of all factors that may influence their behaviour at home and at school. It therefore seems illogical to both emphasise parental responsibility at the same time as removing requirements to keep parents informed. It is also essential that parents are informed of their child’s movements and activities for safeguarding reasons.

8.3 As autism is a disability affecting communication, many children and young people will not be able to inform their parents if force has been used on them. Communication difficulties may also mean that children with autism do not know what ‘appropriate force’ is, or why they are being disciplined. It is therefore vital that schools keep parents informed about incidences when force has been used to ensure that these practices are transparent and accountable.

9. Recommendations

9.1 TreeHouse emphasises the following priority recommendations:

· Early identification of SEN and timely interventions to meet children’s needs and prevent potential behavioural difficulties later in life

· Training in SEN for all school staff and each school to have a staff member with a post-graduate qualification in SEN

· Access for schools to specialist multi-disciplinary support in their local area

· Parents and professionals to work collaboratively to support a child’s progress and positive behaviour through the home-school agreement, joint reviews and good communication around any behavioural issues

September 2010