The Children’s Commissioner has called for a review of so-called ‘calming rooms’ after footage emerged of autistic children being abused in them.
Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, made the call after footage emerged from Whitefield School, in London. It showed children self-harming, and staff hitting them in the face and pushing them into padded rooms.
Dame Rachel De Souza, Children’s commissioner for England, says guidance on restraint and calming rooms must be looked at again
Restrained around the neck
Reports suggest footage also shows staff retraining the children around the neck and leaving them sitting in vomit in the rooms.
The CCTV covers incidents between 2014 and 2017 that the police have investigated.
Family members passed the footage to the BBC, which made it public.
De Souza said “we need to look again” at guidance on restraint and calming rooms to ensure schools use them “only in the most serious cases, and for the shortest time possible”.
New leadership found CCTV footage
The evidence emerged when the school’s new leadership found memory sticks with CCTV footage of the calming rooms.
Concerns surfaced again earlier this year when it emerged that, although the school has proved abuse on the balance of probabilities, some staff are still there and have not been barred from working with children.
The police did not charge anyone following its investigation.
One parent, Deborah, told the BBC she believes the calming rooms caused her son Jamie’s epilepsy.
“I don’t see how they could get away with this level of abuse, and no one’s accountable,” she said.
Footage predates school’s management
The Flourish Learning Trust now runs the school.
In a statement, the organisation said the footage predates the current school’s leadership and the trust itself.
The statement added that “lessons have been learnt” and the school wants to ensure “other children and young people never have to face similar experiences again”.
Autism Eye approached the Department for Education for a comment, but it did not respond.
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Published: 12 December 2024
