Managing Challenging Behaviour

Staff and volunteers who deliver sports activities to children or vulnerable adults may, on occasions, be required to deal with a child’s challenging behaviour. All comments made in relation to children and young people can equally be applied to vulnerable adults (provided that the appropriate specialist advice is taken).

These guidelines from the CPSU aim to promote good practice and to encourage a proactive response to supporting children to manage their behaviour. They suggest some strategies and sanctions which can be used and also identify unacceptable sanctions or interventions which must never be used by staff or volunteers The guidelines will also include the views and suggestions of children.

These guidelines are based on the following principles

• The welfare of the child is the paramount consideration
• All those involved in activities (including children, coaches or volunteers and parents or carers) should be provided with clear guidelines about required standards of conduct and the organisation or club’s process for responding to behaviour that is deemed unacceptable
• Children must never be subject to any form of treatment that is harmful, abusive, humiliating or degrading
• Some children exhibit challenging behaviour as a result of specific circumstances, eg a medical or psychological condition, and coaches may therefore require specific or additional guidance. These and any other specific needs the child may have should be discussed with parents/ carers and the child in planning for the activity, to ensure that an appropriate approach is agreed and, where necessary, additional support provided,
• Sport can make a significant contribution to improving the life experience and outcomes for all children and young people. Every child should be supported to participate and, only in exceptional circumstances where the safety of the child or of other children cannot be maintained, should a child be excluded from club activities.

Planning Activities

Good Coaching practice requires planning sessions around a group as a whole but also involves taking into consideration the needs of each individual within that group. As part of session planning, coaches should consider whether any members of the group have presented in the past or are likely to present any difficulties in relation to the tasks involved, the other participants or the environment.

Where staff or volunteers identify potential risks, strategies to manage those risks should be agreed in advance of the session, event or activity. The planning should also identify the appropriate number of adults required to safely manage and support the session including being able to adequately respond to any challenging behaviour and to safeguard other members of the group and the staff or volunteers involved.

When children are identified as having additional needs or behaviours that are likely to require additional supervision, specialist expertise or support, this should be discussed with parents or carers and where appropriate young people. The club should seek to work in partnership with parents or carers, and where necessary external agencies, to ensure that a child or young person can be supported to participate safely.

Agreeing Acceptable and Unacceptable Behaviours

Staff, volunteers, children, young people and parents or carers should be involved in developing an agreed statement of what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour (code of conduct) and the range of sanctions which may be applied in response to unacceptable behaviour. This can be done at the start of the season, or in advance of a trip away.

Specimen Codes of conduct for young People, Parents, Coach etc can be found by selecting the following links:

• Children:
  • Code of practice for junior members (Microsoft Word .doc file, 60kB.)
  • Welcoming Children to your Club
• Coaches
• Parents and Carers
  • Code of conduct (Microsoft Word .doc file, 60kB.)
  • Code of practice (Microsoft Word .doc file, 59kB.)
• Club Officials and Volunteers (Microsoft Word .doc file, 60kB.)
• Spectators (Microsoft Word .doc file, 59kB.)

Issues of behaviour and control should be regularly discussed with staff, volunteers, parents and children in the context of rights and responsibilities. When children are specifically asked, as a group, to draw up a code of conduct that will govern their participation in club activities, experience indicates that they tend to arrive at a very sensible and working set of ‘rules’ with greater ‘buy-in’ from participants than those simply imposed by adults within the club. If and when such a code is compiled, every member of the group can be asked to sign it, as can new members as they join.

Managing Challenging Behaviour

In responding to challenging behaviour the response should always be proportionate to the actions, be imposed as soon as is practicable and be fully explained to the child and their parents or carers. In dealing with children who display negative or challenging behaviours, staff and volunteers might consider the following options

• Time out – from the activity, group or individual work
• Reparation – the act of process of making amends
• Restitution – the act of giving something back
• Behavioural reinforcement – rewards for good behaviour, consequences for negative behaviour
• De-escalation of the situation – talking through with the child
• Increased supervision by staff and/or volunteers
• Use of individual ‘contracts’ or agreements for their future or continued participation
• Sanctions or consequences e.g. missing a session, or a trip
• Seeking additional or specialist support through working in partnership with other agencies to ensure a child’s needs are met appropriately.
• Temporary or permanent exclusion.

  The following should never be permitted as a means of managing a child’s behaviour:

  • Physical punishment or the threat of such
  • Refusal to speak to or interact with the child
  • Being deprived of food, water, access to changing facilities or toilets or other essential facilities
  • Verbal intimidation, ridicule or humiliation

  Physical Intervention

  The use of physical intervention should always be avoided unless it is absolutely necessary to prevent a child injuring themselves or others, or causing serious damage to property. All forms of physical intervention should form part of a broader approach to the management of challenging behaviour.

  Physical contact to prevent something happening should always be the result of conscious decision-making and not a reaction. Before physically intervening, the member of staff or volunteer should ask themselves “is this the only option in order to manage the situation and ensure safety?” it is good practice to ensure that if you have to physically intervene in a situation with a child or young person, it is in the least restrictive way necessary to prevent them from getting hurt, and use only after all other strategies have been exhausted. Studies have shown that, where this is the case, children and young people understand and accept the reasons for the intervention.

  The following must always be considered

  • Contact should be avoided with buttocks, genitals and breasts. Staff and volunteers should never behave in a way which could be interpreted as sexual
  • Any form of physical intervention should achieve an outcome that is in the best interests of the child whose behaviour is of immediate concern
  • Staff and volunteers should consider the circumstances, the risks associated with employing physical intervention compared with the risks of not employing physical intervention
  • The scale and nature of the physical intervention must always be proportionate to the behaviour of the young person and the nature of harm/ damage they might cause
  • All forms of physical intervention should employ only a reasonable amount of force, ie the minimum force needed to avert injury to a person or serious damage to property, applied for the shortest period of time
  • Staff and volunteers should never employ physical interventions which are deemed to present an unreasonable risk to children or staff and volunteers
  • Staff and volunteers shall never use physical intervention as a form of punishment
  • Physical intervention should NOT involve inflicting pain
  • Where children are identified as having additional needs or behaviours that are likely to require physical intervention this should be discussed with parents or carers and where necessary the club will seek advice from or work in partnership with external agencies to ensure that a child or young person can be supported to participate safely. This may involve asking for the provision of a suitably trained support worker or volunteer or accessing staff and volunteer training in physical intervention.

  Any physical intervention used should be recorded as soon as possible after the incident by the staff or volunteers involved using the Incident Report Form and passed to the Child Protection or Safeguarding Officer as soon as possible.

  The View of the Child

  It is clear from the accounts of children and young people that physical intervention provokes strong feelings. Children may be left physically or emotionally hurt. Even a child who hasn’t directly been involved in the situation may be fearful that it will happen to them in future or have been upset by seeing what has happened to others.

  A timely debrief for staff and volunteers, the child and parents should always take place following an incident where physical intervention has been used. This should include ensuring that the physical and emotional well-being of those involved ahs been addressed and ongoing support offered where necessary.

  Staff and volunteers, children and parents should be given an opportunity to talk about what happened in a calm and safe environment.

  There should also be a discussion with the child and parents about the child’s needs and continued safe participation in the group or activity

  It is important that staff and volunteers are made aware of and understand the organisation/ club’s guidance about managing challenging behaviour to ensure they are aware of ways in which they may need to intervene and are clear about the practice guidance in this area.

  Summary – a policy for managing challenging behaviour

  In conclusion all organisations that have a duty of care to children and young people should develop and implement a policy and procedures on managing challenging behaviour or consider incorporating this into their child protection policy. It should clearly set out the following

  • The standard of conduct expected from staff, volunteers and participants
  • How the organisation will respond to unacceptable behaviours
  • How your organisation will respond to “high risk behaviour”. This will give children and young people a clear message about when staff may need to get involved to stop a particular form of behaviour, and describe options to avoid confrontation, eg through time out.
  • The circumstances in which children will be restrained. A decision to restrain a child should be firmly based on the safety of the child and must NEVER be made as a punishment or to get children to comply with instructions
  • The guidance, information or any support and/or training available to staff and volunteers, particularly where they are supporting a child with recognised challenging behaviour to access club activities
  • The circumstances where external agencies will be contacted for support or in response to concerns, e.g. children’s social care services, the Police
  • What will happen after an incident? Your organisation (Club etc) must have in place arrangements to check on the physical and emotional wellbeing of the child and staff, guidance on recording, who should be informed and a system for recording and monitoring.

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