Restraint
In less than a third of the cases we looked at the young person had been subject to restraint.The main reasons for this related to aggressive behaviour, attempts to abscond and parenteral feeding.All but two of these incidents were managed under the authority of the 2003 Act. All the units have a restraint policy in place and provide training on restraint for nursing staff. One unit has been asked to review their policy and training in light of issues raised by us during the visit.
The use of seclusion is very rare in young people's units. However, during our visit one young person was being nursed separately from the other residents due to the level of risk to others that could result from his behaviour. This was a temporary situation while a more appropriate placement was being sought and there was a clear risk assessment and care plan in place for this.
All units report that they may carry out searches of a young person's s room and their bags on admission or return to the unit based on individual risk assessments.Several of the staff we spoke to were unclear under what authority this was carried out and were unaware of the provisions for safety and security under section 286 of the 2003 Act.
We also found that young people admitted to non-specialist wards didn't have access to specialist advocacy services.
