Already trained with another provider? Build on it with PCT.
You can keep your current physical intervention provider and access PCT’s focused approach to legal understanding and accountable decisions.
Could your staff explain the decision behind an intervention?
“To keep them safe from harm” describes the outcome staff want to achieve. It does not, by itself, explain the legal basis for using force at that moment.
Why this adds value to your existing training
Our governance-led training connects the practical skills your team already holds with the legal basis for using them. Explore how decisions are reviewed: the circumstances and information available at the time, the risks identified, the options considered, and whether the response was necessary and proportionate.
For your organisation, this supports:
- Staff who are better prepared to explain their actions and the decisions behind them.
- Managers who can review practice more meaningfully, identify gaps and support learning.
- Clearer accounts and records for external scrutiny, including questions from inspectors.
Who is this course for?
School staff and management, including teachers, support staff, new starters and colleagues building on physical intervention training from PCT or another provider.
What the course covers
The legal framework for school staff
Connect the education framework with staff responsibilities and the circumstances of a particular decision. Explore the relationship between the law, current guidance and the school’s own policies.
Pupil welfare and individual needs
Consider the pupil’s rights, needs and experience alongside the risks staff identify. Explore how prevention and de-escalation inform the options available to the team.
Reasoning at the moment of intervention
Move beyond a general safeguarding aim to examine the reasons for an action. Use the information available at the time to discuss the purpose, necessity and proportionality of the proposed response.
The PCT Decision Assessment Tool
Bring legal understanding and risk assessment into one discussion. Work through the reasoning behind a decision and consider how it can be explained by the staff involved.
Reflection and leadership review
Explore previous decisions, the pupil’s perspective and the learning a school can take forward. Discuss how clear accounts help leaders examine practice and respond when an incident is questioned.
The Department for Education’s guidance effective from April 2026 addresses prevention, pupil needs, recording and reporting, and leadership oversight. Discuss your school’s priorities with PCT when agreeing the course emphasis. Read the current DfE guidance.
How the course works
Learning & delivery
One day focused on legal understanding, risk assessment and reflection. The PCT Decision Assessment Tool brings these together. Practical physical intervention skills are covered in the separate physical intervention course.
All PCT courses are delivered face to face.
Assessment & certification
This course develops legal understanding and reflection on decisions in schools. It does not assess practical physical intervention skills. Your course confirmation sets out the attendance and assessment requirements for the law programme.
- Certificate issued by
- Prime Care Training (PCT)
- Certificate title
- Legal Framework and Responsibilities for Use of Force with Children
- PCT renewal interval
- 36 months
- Course length
- 1 day
PCT issues its own course certificates after successful completion and cleared payment. Renewal intervals shown are PCT’s course intervals; your organisation may identify a need for earlier refresher learning. Read the booking and assessment arrangements.
Plan your booking
This course focuses on schools in England. Your proposal sets out the learning focus, delivery arrangements and assessment or course records.