Supervised self-harm was allowed at special school

An investigation has been launched after teachers at a specialist school in Surrey were told to allow a pupil with a history of self-harm to have controlled access to razor blades. Principal Steve Dempsey and headteacher Laura Blair, of Unsted Park School, Godalming, face the prospect of a professional conduct hearing by the Teaching Agency under allegations of unacceptable professional conduct. The allegations surround the decision to give sterilised blade kits to a pupil at the school, in order to allow them to self-harm under specific and controlled conditions.

The school, in Munstead Park, is run by the Priory Group and offers education to boys and girls aged seven to 19 with Asperger’s syndrome and higher functioning autism. According to the controlled self-harm procedure, handed out to staff but aborted after just six days, the pupil would be escorted to a bathroom and allowed to carry out self-harm in a "safe and controlled manner". Teachers would wait outside the bathroom while the pupil was inside, checking on them every two minutes. The wounds would then be dressed and cleaned by staff.



Several members of staff were understood to have protested against the policy, complaining to Surrey County Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer. The policy was stopped after less than a week. Following the investigation, a panel will determine what action will be taken. If the allegations are serious enough, the case may be referred to a hearing before a professional conduct panel. A Priory Group spokesman said: “We are always willing to review cases with the Teaching Agency. This was a short-term, local procedure introduced by the headteacher and school principal who genuinely believed it was in the best interests of the pupil.”

A spokesperson from charity Selfharm.co.uk said: “The issue of controlled self-harm has proven to be effective in some areas, but only under the correct supervision. Self-harm is sometimes the safest option for a young person – if they’re using self-harm to make life a bit easier to manage (for example) then taking it away from them without replacing it with something else can actually bring on a desperate kind of depression that could make them slide from self-harm to having suicidal ideation. I’d rather someone be self-harming in a way they can manage as safely as possible than be left stranded with no way to cope and be thinking about more desperate measures.”