Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children and young people in foster care is the highest priority and appropriate and positive behaviour management strategies should always be implemented.

Restrictive practices are not permitted as they could cause harm to the child or young person unless specifically implemented as part of a behavioural support plan (BSP).

At Narang Bir-rong, we are committed to providing our carers with the appropriate skills and tools to enable them to support the children and young people in their care, and our team of caseworkers are always available to support you in managing difficult behaviours and any other challenges that may arise.

Here, we provide some useful information about what constitutes restrictive practices and alternative strategies that can be more effective for both you and the child in your care.

• Temporarily restrain the child, only to the extent necessary, to prevent them seriously injuring themselves or another person
• Remove alcohol, illegal substances, a weapon or any objects being used by the child in a dangerous manner
• Remove any other objects or implements necessary to prevent the child from harming themselves or another person.

Response cost: Response cost refers to a planned response to a specific behaviour that involves removing a child’s access to rewarding items and/or activities, such as TV or computer games, as a consequence of certain behaviour.

Denying access to activities that are needed for their personal development and wellbeing is not appropriate.

While response cost is generally not considered a restrictive practice that requires formal approval, if it is used to target a particular behaviour, it should be included in the approved Behaviour Support Plan.

Restrictive practices of response cost do not refer to the following:

• Threatening removal from your family
• Not letting them see their birth family as scheduled
• Cancelling a special occasion such as Birthdays, Easter, Christmas etc
• Denying access to basic needs and services such as restricting access to:
  • Food, including placing locks on cupboards, fridges, pantry etc
  • Bathroom
  • Bedroom
  • School
  • Agency
• Withholding prescribed medication.

These practices are known as “Prohibited Practices” and would not be considered appropriate, ever.

Restricted access: Limiting a child or young person’s independent access to items, activities, experiences or places using physical barriers is known as restricted access.

If a restricted access strategy is implemented to manage behaviour or for safety reasons (e.g. limiting access to a mobile phone), it must be as part of the child’s formal Behaviour Support Plan strategy and must not involve seclusion (i.e. placement of a child in a setting where they are confined in a room or area from which they cannot leave).

Everyday safety precautions that are not targeting specific behaviours (e.g. locking away household chemicals or prescribed medications) do not require a Behaviour Support Plan.

Non-exclusionary time-out: Non-exclusionary time-out is a common behaviour management strategy that involves carers withdrawing their attention or interaction with a child for a short period of time so that they do not reinforce the behaviour.

If used to target particular behaviours, non-exclusionary time-outs should form part of the approved BSP.

Exclusionary time-out: Finally, exclusionary time-out relates to actions that remove a child from a situation in order to prevent activities that reinforce a specific behaviour of concern.

Exclusionary time-out may only be used as a temporary safety measure if the child is at risk or seriously injuring themselves or another person.

These are not to be confused with “Prohibited Practices”, which are not to be used as a form of discipline management. Prohibitive practices are not considered effective and are never ever put within a behaviour support plan for a child. These include:

• Hitting, smacking, pinching, punching, pushing or any other forms of assault with your hand or implement such as stick, belt, shoe etc
• Threatening a child with “telling” the worker/birth family as punishment
• Prolonged silences as a form of control
• Locking a child in a room.

Crisis management: On rare occasions, restrictive practices may be required during a crisis – a critical event and/or reportable conduct incident. However, a crisis cannot be used to justify the continued use of restrictive practices.

In the event that this does occur, your caseworker or behaviour support expert will develop, or review, the BSP so that strategies can be implemented to prevent a crisis from occurring again in the future.

Key techniques:

1. Explain the ground rules: Set clear expectations that are matched to the age, developmental stage and maturity of the child or young person.
2. Keep it simple: Outlining just a few simple rules helps kids understand the boundaries. Setting reasonable, consistent and enforceable boundaries is easier when you focus on the most important aspects.
3. Stay calm: Recognising your own emotional triggers and having strategies that will help you cool down is very important.
4. Teach rather than punish: Teaching focuses on what kids should be doing, whereas punishment puts the focus on what not to do. When problems or misbehaviour occur, think less about ‘punishment’ and more about helping the child recognise more appropriate behaviours.

Remember that it takes time for children to adjust to their new surroundings. Just because you outlined the rules on day one and they have followed them on days one, two, three and four, does not mean they may not disobey you on the fifth day. Children require consistent reinforcement and encouragement.