This post is about conflict management, personal safety, and Dynamis training. Questions we often get asked at Dynamis: how many people should we train in positive handling skills? Should we train the whole staff team or a specialist group?
The short answer
There is no specific guidance on what the “correct” number of staff to train in positive handling at a school should be. But there is strong direction in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, Regulation 13.
Regulation 13 gives employers guidance on the “Capabilities and Training” of staff in order to maintain health and safety in the workplace. It instructs employers to provide adequate training — but what does that mean when we’re focused on potentially harmful behaviour in schools?
💡 Start by asking two questions: How often are incidents happening in your setting? And who is usually dealing with those incidents?
The reality in most schools
Most of the time, a small proportion of children or young people at a given school present with behaviours that may require de-escalation or prompt a positive handling intervention.
Typically a few staff are present when those incidents happen — because they are directly involved with the day-to-day activity of the child, for example the child’s teacher and one or two teaching assistants. If things get out of hand, another (usually more experienced or more senior) person may be called to support.
Because they deal with a disproportionate amount of de-escalation and positive handling incidents compared with other colleagues, this specific group gains vital experience with those children and young people. They learn their triggers, cues, and preferred methods of de-escalation. They regularly practise the skills required to intervene successfully — verbally wherever possible, physically as a last resort.
Other colleagues, with the exception of those operating in small schools, simply don’t have as much exposure or as much practice.
It is Dynamis’ view that in most cases, training the whole staff team to an equivalent standard in positive handling is a disproportionate use of the school’s resources and time.
The risk of training everyone
Because of the varied attitudes and physical capabilities of staff in relation to positive handling, there is a case to be made that training everyone may even increase risk over time.
If all members of staff are trained to the same level without due consideration given to their experience levels, who they are working with, and their likelihood of being involved in an incident, an expectation is created that they are capable to act. Staff may then try to intervene based on training they are not currently using — which heightens the risk of a sub-optimal result.
The case for a specialist team
Our teams exist on a standard distribution — a bell curve — of both physical abilities and judgement born from experience: of this child or young person; of special educational needs and behavioural difficulties; of your unique context; and of life in general.
Your school community deserves a positive handling training programme that proportionately trains the relevant staff to deal with the incidents they may likely and foreseeably be involved with — while ensuring the rest of the staff body have a broad understanding of what to do and who to call when an incident is likely to require a positive handling intervention.
📊 Dynamis recommendation: If you don’t already have one, create a specialist behaviour management team. An average-sized school typically needs around twelve highly-trained staff to form the team — smaller schools may need fewer, larger schools more. Specialist or alternative provisions may need to train all staff in some level of behaviour management.
The behaviour management team is then responsible for responding to behavioural crises and getting involved in the positive handling interventions that happen at the school. Because the group is called to proportionately more interventions, they develop more experience using their de-escalation and non-escalation verbalisation skills, and better experience of working as a team during a physical intervention — resulting in a safer environment for everyone.
Conclusion
School leaders considering positive handling training should carefully consider who they want to be involved with these interventions — and then disproportionately invest resources on training that team to perform this function at a high level.
This guide on conflict management, personal safety, and Dynamis training is part of our ongoing work with schools and academies.