For data collection purposes, the Youth Justice Board defines restrictive physical intervention as
“Any occasion when force is used with the intention of overpowering or to overpower a young person. Overpower is defined as ‘restricting movement or mobility’”.
‘Removal from association’ is a legislative term in relation to practice in young offender institutions and secure training centres. The relevant provisions are rule 49 of the Young Offender Institution Rules 2000 and rule 36 of the Secure Training Centre Rules 1998. For data collection purposes, the Youth Justice Board uses the term ‘single separation’.
Single separation is any instance where a young person is contained, for the purposes of control, within a locked room or enclosure with visible barriers, without staff, and cannot leave the room or enclosure whenever they want to do so. ‘Purposes of control’ includes preventing harm to others, harm to self and damage to property.
Single separation includes situations where staff members act as physical barriers by blocking a doorway and preventing a young person from leaving a room.
Single separation does not include any situation where a young person chooses to remove him- or herself from a group in order to calm down or have time out, so long as the young person has the ability to rejoin the group whenever he or she chooses to do so. Nor does it include periods when all trainees are in their rooms, for example during night hours.
The independent Review of Restraint in Juvenile Secure Settings, which was published together with the Government's response on 15 December 2008, made important recommendations about improving practice and making sure restraint is used as sparingly as possible. The Government and the Youth Justice Board are working together to implement those recommendations.