Managing Behaviour

Policy, procedures and practice guidance

“Children benefit most where adults adopt a consistent and positive approach to the management of their behaviour. By establishing clear boundaries according to the child’s level of understanding, children become aware of the setting’s routines and procedures and know what it expected of them.”

Policy Statement

The Directors of Glo-active believe that children and young people need clear developmentally and age appropriate expectations for their behaviour in order to learn to manage their own behaviour. They also believe that every incident of inappropriate behaviour is a learning opportunity which should not be missed.

Codes for interacting with other people vary between cultures and staff are required to recognise and respect this.

Staff, associates and volunteers are required by the Directors to provide positive role models for behaviour by treating everyone they encounter: children, young people, parents, carers, colleagues, other professionals and members of the public with respect at all times.

Purpose

This policy is designed to inform staff of the procedures and guidance and to identify the responsibilities of each person. It is intended to give staff a framework for managing difficult behaviour in potentially risky situations.

Scope

This policy applies to all Glo-activestaff, associates and volunteers who, in carrying out their duties of care for children and young people, have to provide guidance, set expectations, and manage difficult behaviour. This applies to work with individuals, work with groups, and when taking part in Settings and residentials.

This policy does not impact on the individual's right in statute and common law to take reasonable action to keep themselves and other people safe.

Context

Services are offered on a twenty-four hour a day, seven-day a week basis, and some children and young people might be angry, frightened, traumatised or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Communication might be difficult due to impairment or emotional state. Social workers and support staff often work with service users bothin their homes and in other settings; this might be outside normal office hours and will often involve accompanying or supervising children and young people in public places.

Staff are trained to understand the specific needs of those who have unresolved trauma and/or attachment difficulties which have resulted in a lack of empathy, a lack of understanding of the link between behaviour and consequences, and who have not learned to manage their stress, impulses and behaviour. Support is an essential element to the Directors’ duty to staff, and these principles apply:

  • a commitment to supporting staff in order to maintain safe working practices
  • recognising and reducing risk
  • a commitment to the provision of appropriate support for staff
  • a clear understanding of responsibilities
  • the priority placed on the safety of the individual over property
  • a commitment to providing appropriate regular de-escalation training for staff

Other Policies

Other policies relating to this one are:

  • Lone Working
  • Recording
  • Health and Safety
  • Post Incident Support
  • Child Protection & Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults

Definition

Within this document, ‘challenging behaviour’ refers to any behaviour which is undesirable or inappropriate in the setting in which it is displayed.

Procedures and Practice Guidance

There is a requirement that all children and young people have a combined Risk Assessment and Behaviour Management Plan (Appendix 1).Referrers can provide this information in another format if they wish.

Staff who have specific cases allocated to them should ensure that the Risk Assessment and Behaviour Management Plan is completed and filed to allow access to other staff, associates and volunteers who might be asked to work with the individual. Information gathered from parents, carers, referrers and school staff can be incorporated into the plan.

Staff should update the Risk Assessment and Behaviour Management Plan as necessary, having discussed this first with their manager or supervisor. Changes should be communicated to other staff as appropriate.

Staff working with children and young people for the first time should ensure they read the Risk Assessment and Behaviour Management Plan, and take note of:

  • The risks associated with the individual and how the risks are managed
  • The identified triggers of inappropriate behaviour or responses
  • Behaviour management techniques which have been known to be effective with the individual

When there is challenging behaviour to be managed staff should draw on their training to employ the behaviour management techniques which are identified in the individual’s plan. These techniques might be:

  • Managing the environment
  • Planned ignoring of behaviour
  • Prompting/providing cues
  • Providing praise, affection, positive input (sometimes called ‘gesture of care’
  • Giving a leg-up (sometimes called ‘hurdle help’ or ‘help script’)
  • Providing appropriate non-verbal communication including correct proximity for the individual, hand signals, facial expression or a calming light touch hand on the arm – sometimes called ‘contingent touch’
  • Redirecting or distracting, this can include use of humour if appropriate, change of task or activity, change of venue
  • Time out
  • Providing clear direction (reminder of expectations, reward systems, boundaries and limits, rights and responsibilities
  • Give options (provide a way out of the corner)
  • ‘Letting off steam’ in an agreed way
  • Conflict resolution

As many of the children and young people allocated to Glo-active staff have attachment difficulties, unresolved trauma, or limited understanding due to disability, sanctions are only usually applied as part of a wider care plan. Individuals who have not learnt the relationship between actions and consequences view sanctions as abuse. Therefore Glo-active staff are encouraged to use their relationship with the individual to develop self-management of their behaviour rather than to rely on the regular application of sanctions. For example, if an individual is racially abusive staff should use this as an opportunity to educate him or her rather than automatically applying a sanction.

If a sanction doesn’t work first time, it is unlikely to work on subsequent occasions; therefore staff are expected to not apply sanctions which have been proved to be ineffective. Acceptable sanctions, which can only be applied after a warning, might include:

  • Providing the opportunity to ‘put it right’ – Reparation or Restitution
  • Doing something such as a chore, piece of school work or ‘good turn’ to ‘make up for it’
  • Having a treat or reward cancelled or delayed

The sanction must always have direct relevance to the behaviour which is being addressed.

Some sanctions are not permitted. These include:

  • Corporal punishment
  • Restriction of liberty (this is separate from keeping a young child or a child or young person with limited understanding safe, which is not a sanction)
  • Fines
  • Withdrawal of staff attention except where the behaviour is being ignored as part of a plan (the rule being: ignore the behaviour not the child)
  • Restriction of contact with significant persons such as parents, carers or social workers
  • Removal of possessions (unless as part of a care plan, or the possession in question has been used as a weapon)
  • Deprivation of food or drink (except for additional ‘treats’)
  • Withholding medication or medical treatment
  • Deprivation of sleep
  • Intimate physical searches
  • Humiliation

Staff are trained to conduct ‘life space interviews’ with individuals after an incident or any challenging or unwanted behaviour. This can be achieved in a formal or informal way. All the stages must be addressed, and the plan agreed should be shared with parents, carers, referrers, case holders and other staff as necessary. A life space interview includes these stages:

  • Isolate the individual – choose the right time and the right place where you won’t be interrupted
  • Explore the individual’s story of what happened first with no interruptions
  • Share the staff’s story with the individual – what was observed, or what has been reported, and why it might have happened
  • Connect the behaviour displayed with the feelings causing it
  • Identify a number of possible alternative responses
  • Choose one and make it into an agreed plan which is then shared with appropriate others
  • Support the individual to enter back into daily life positively

An incident report should be completed if an incident has occurred, and this report must include the outcome of the life space interview.

This intervention can also be used to help parents and carers manage the behaviour of their children.

Staff are encouraged and supported to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with the children and young people they work with. The relationship is the main tool used to enable individuals to develop strategies for managing their stress, impulses and behaviour, and for developing empathy and learning the link between actions and consequences. This is because staff are expected to develop a consistent trusting relationship, where the child or young person receives the message that they are valued and liked. Staff are encouraged to give an abundance of positive attention to avoid situations where individuals only receive individual attention as a result of challenging behaviour.

If staff or service users feel that the relationship is not working, then this should be reported to a manager or supervisor so that a change of worker can be considered.

The quality of the relationships that staff have with individuals will be reviewed in their individual supervision sessions.

As a rule rough play is discouraged as the individuals referred for support to Glo-active tend to be those whose development has been affected by events in their childhood, meaning that they are more at risk of not understanding what is play and what is not, and not having developed an ability to limit their responses if hurt accidently.

Bullying must be taken very seriously, and both the person who has bullied another and the person who has been bullied must be provided with support and guidance. Bullying cannot be tolerated so if an individual is affected by bullying behaviour and cannot operate positively in a group, then consideration must be given to working with them separately.

When immediate response is required when the safety of anyone is compromised, then help should be summoned by calling 999 or 112 and asking for police assistance, and then reporting to the on call person as soon as possible.

Relevant staff are trained in Team Teach which enables them to use physical restraint in accordance with service users Individual Behaviour Plans. This form of restraint is only used to manage behaviours that directors feel will cause harm to the person themselves or others around them.

Reporting a concern or incident

Should an incident occur, the reporting and de-briefing should followthe guidance in the Post Incident Support Policy.

Staff might be required to provide a written account of the incident.

Staff can request a supervisory discussion with their supervisor on a planned basis or with the on call manager at any time if they have a concern.

Support following an incident

The support available is detailed in the Post Incident Support Policy.

Monitoring and Review

  • The ongoing implementation of the Behaviour Management Policy will be monitored through the supervision process.
  • Any member of staff with a concern regarding these issues should ensure that it is discussed with their supervisor, manager or a Director.
  • The policy will be reviewed every two years as part of the regular cycle of reviews, unless changing circumstances require an earlier review.

Behaviour / Risk Assessment Plan

Name

Date of Plan Review Date

Environments and Triggers

Describe the situations which have led to dangerous incidents in the past.

______

Risk

Tick the level of potential risk

Low [ ] Medium [ ] High [ ]

Risk likely to effect

Staff [ ] Young People [ ] Vulnerable Adults [ ] Community [ ]

Tick / Describe precisely what might happen

Slap [ ] Punch [ ] Bite [ ] Pinch [ ] Kick [ ] Neck Grab [ ] Clothing Grab [ ]

Spit [ ] Body holds [ ] Arm Grabs [ ]

Other ______

Prevention

Describe any changes to Routines, Personal or Environment which might reduce the risk of this happening

______

Diversion and Distractions

Describe interests, words objects etc which may divert attention from an escalating crisis.

(To change someone behaviour, you must change their thinking)

De- escalation

Describe any strategies which have worked in the past or should be avoided

Try Avoid

______

______

______

______

Physical Intervention (to keep everyone safe)

______

Learning

What can we do to avoid this behaviour continually happening ?

______

Recording and Notifications Required

Parents [ ] Staff [ ] Residential Staff [ ] Teachers [ ] Respite Carer [ ] Social Worker[ ]

Other ______

Signed Date