For many years the world of restrictive practices has had numerous guidelines and advice provided by different bodies across the health and social care community.

Unfortunately a number of those guidelines have been prompted or informed by episodes of care that resulted in poor practice and in extreme cases abuse and assaults on vulnerable children and adults.

The most recent of these, which had a national profile, was Winterbourne View, a hospital for people with Learning Disability, which an undercover reporter from the BBC worked in while filming and recording staff.

While similar in presentation to a previous documentary (Macintyre Undercover) it did highlight that there was still an awful lot of work to do if we are to improve culture and training in this contentious area. As the part of the Government response to the Winterbourne View Inquiry it became obvious that some of the changes that a number of practitioners and trainers have advocated for, in the scope of Restrictive Practices Training, were now overdue.

The DMI Training team have been fortunate to take part in shaping the majority of the most recent Statutory Advice and Guidelines. Either by being members of Expert Reference Groups, Standing Committees or leading in projects and being asked for our views or advice by bodies which have shaped the documentation in the last couple of years.

We will endeavour to keep this section up to date with any newly published documents that we become aware of.

Within this section we have posted the relevant guidelines both for the use and the Reduction of Restrictive Practices. We welcome any suggestions to add guidelines and or reports, inquiries or laws that you think make a useful addition to this resource.

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National Guidelines, Statutory Advice and Trust Policies Contact Details

Jan James, DMI Operational & Commercial Development Manager

DMI Team,
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust,
St. George's Hospital,
Corporation Street,
Stafford,
ST16 3SR