EDUCATION chiefs have drawn up proposals to allow school staff to physically intervene in situations involving disruptive pupils.

Darlington Borough Council has drafted a "restrictive physical intervention" policy, outlining how far teachers and other school staff can go in dealing with problems.

The policy stresses that other methods should be used first to try to defuse a situation.

However, it said that there were circumstances where physical action may be necessary.

A report to councillors said such instances could be where pupils were likely to injure themselves or others, where there was a threat to a safe learning environment and when other ways of calming a situation had failed.

The proposals said managers should not ask staff to work in isolated situations with young people whose behaviour increased the chance of confrontation.

It said: "When using restrictive physical intervention, staff will need to be mindful of allegations that may be made against them.

"Education staff are vulnerable to allegations of child abuse if they apply any form of physical control.

"Equally, they are open to accusations of a failure of duty of care if they do not intervene to apply physical control and a child suffers as a result."

In the case of staff being assaulted, the policy said: "A member of staff who is physically attacked must use the appropriate means available for self-defence.

"This will be a matter for personal judgement.

"If it is possible, the member of staff should remove themselves from the immediate vicinity, or from the attacker, without putting at risk the other young persons or adults."

Councillors will consider the report when they meet on Tuesday.