MPs call to end use of handcuffs on children in care

Ministers are backing the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign, launched by Emily Aklan, chief executive of children’s social care provider Serenity Welfare, which is calling for legislation allowing a child in care to be handcuffed during secure transportation to be scrapped.

• Analysis: Fall in YOI staff linked to restraint increase

• How I Got Here: Emily Aklan, Serenity Welfare chief

It is currently legal for private transport providers to physically restrain children at their discretion without the accountability of regulation or monitoring of restraint.  

The campaign has received cross-party support from more than 20 MPs and peers, including Steve McCabe, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for looked-after children, Christian Wakeford, Conservative MP for Bury South and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Streatham, has tabled a parliamentary motion stating that a child who has not committed or suspected of committing a crime should not be placed in handcuffs or any other form of physical restraint, and questioned the current lack of procedures to monitor its current use.

She said: "The rising use of restraint against children in the care system reflects a whole series of policy failures and wider lack of early intervention. If we're going to keep children safe, we need transparency about how they're being treated. We must shine a light on practices which have been allowed to stay in the dark away from public knowledge for far too long and start acting to stop the social care system causing further harm to already vulnerable children and young people."

Aklan added: “Not only is the use of handcuffs and physical restraints wholly unnecessary, but it is incredibly damaging to our vulnerable children in care who have already suffered insurmountable trauma.

“I’ve seen far too many children with red marks around their wrists with massive distrust towards the system which is supposed to be helping them. But with no need to monitor and report any use of handcuffs and safeguarding issues preventing children from being able to share their stories, it’s been incredibly difficult to prove just how widespread this issue is.”