Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice

1. Purpose

Most young people who come to Care Cove Alternative Provision (Care Cove AP) have been told many times that their behaviour is the problem. Many have lived through trauma, loss or exploitation, and many have special educational needs that were missed. Their behaviour usually makes sense once we understand what it is communicating.

This policy explains how we hold high standards calmly. It tells staff exactly what to do, when things go well and when they go wrong, so that every learner meets adults who respond in the same way.

It rests on four commitments that we also make to every commissioning local authority:

• We do not exclude. We raise the staffing ratio, use the regulation space, hold a restorative conversation the same day and convene the Team Around the Family (TAF).

• We never correct or humiliate a learner in public.

• We repair harm instead of punishing it.

• No placement ends without first consulting the referring school and the commissioning local authority.

2. Scope

This policy applies to every learner at Care Cove AP, whoever commissions the place, and to all Care Cove staff, agency and partner staff (including My Solution Wellbeing counsellors and First Class Teachers cover staff), sessional tutors and volunteers. It covers all AP activity: at 37 Townhead Street, in outdoor classrooms, on work placements and tasters, on transport we arrange, and online where it affects learners or the provision.

3. Law and guidance

Care Cove AP is not a school and is not registered with Ofsted. We follow DfE guidance written for schools as good practice, because our learners are returning to schools that use it.

• Behaviour in Schools (DfE, 2024).

• Suspension and Permanent Exclusion (DfE, 2024). The legal power to suspend or exclude belongs to headteachers of schools. Care Cove has no such power and does not suspend or exclude in any form.

• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 (KCSIE), including Part Five on child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment, and the Early Help indicators for children repeatedly removed from class or on part-time timetables.

• Mobile phones in schools (DfE statutory guidance from 29 June 2026), which we follow in full.

• Use of Reasonable Force in Schools (DfE) and Searching, Screening and Confiscation (DfE, 2022). The statutory powers these describe (section 93 Education and Inspections Act 2006 on reasonable force, and the Education Act 1996 powers to search pupils without consent) belong to school staff only. Care Cove staff do not hold them. We follow the guidance as good practice within the general law (policies 08 and 09).

• SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25 (2015); Children and Families Act 2014; Equality Act 2010.

• Relationships, Sex and Health Education statutory guidance (revised, in effect from 1 September 2026).

4. Roles and responsibilities

5. Our ethos: warm but strict

Strict means clear, consistent and predictable: the same routines and words every day, and adults who follow through. It never means loud, public or humiliating.

Warm means every learner is greeted by name, gets a fresh start every morning and is never shamed. Adults stay regulated when a young person is not.

Trauma-informed means we treat behaviour as communication, keep the day predictable (with Now and Next boards for learners who need them), give choices within limits, correct privately and briefly, and lead the repair of relationships ourselves.

We never withhold food, drink, toilet access, therapy, contact with a parent or a badge already earned, and we never use exercise or stillness as a punishment. We do not use detentions, isolation booths, public behaviour charts or whole-group sanctions.

6. The Respect Code

Three promises, learned on day one, on the wall in every room and said back each week in the Respect Circle.

Adults keep the Code too: staff do not swear, do not use personal phones in front of learners, and clear up after Family Table.

7. Routines that prevent problems

Most behaviour is managed before it starts, by routines learners can name and predict. Run these every day.

Groups have six learners or fewer with at least two adults, with 1:1 or 2:1 support where a plan requires it. Volunteers never count towards ratios.

8. Recognition and rewards

We recognise effort and progress, not just attainment or attendance. Recognition is specific, private or small-group, and never ranked.

• Respect moments. When a learner keeps a promise, tell them specifically ("You let them finish before you spoke. That's respecting everyone here.") and log a respect moment on Connect the same day.

• RESET Passport badges. A badge for each pillar (Respect, Energy, Stillness, Effort, Tech mastery), earned by showing it, not just by attending. Badges show in the Connect Student app, and the passport goes with the learner to their next school.

• RESET postcard home. Each week the key mentor sends a message through the Family portal naming one specific thing the learner did well.

• Personal bests. We compare learners with themselves: longest Focus Sprint, fitness, reading age, attendance.

• Respect Circle shout-outs and family showcases at the end of each theme.

We do not use public leaderboards or any display that compares learners. A badge, once earned, is never taken away.

9. When the Code is broken: the four Rs

The four Rs are our only response ladder. Use the lowest step that works. Every step is calm, private and brief.

Staff must never shout, use sarcasm, correct a learner in front of others, discuss one learner's behaviour with another, punish a group, threaten exclusion or the end of the placement, take any item by force, or keep a learner after 15:45 without the parent's agreement.

10. Regulation space protocol

Our regulation spaces are low-stimulus, have no ligature points and clear sightlines, and are never lockable from either side.

1. The space is for calming down, never for punishment. Never call it "isolation".

2. A learner goes there with an adult, by agreement wherever possible. If a learner goes alone, an adult follows straight away.

3. An adult is always present or within direct sight. The door is never locked, held shut or blocked. Keeping a learner in a room they cannot leave is seclusion, which we never use (policy 08).

4. The adult says little and offers water, a seat, the learner's Calm Kit or the strategies in their plan.

5. When the learner is calm, the adult moves to Repair or back to learning.

6. If the learner is not calm after 20 minutes, the adult asks the Head of AP or Lead Mentor to review the rest of the day. The learner continues in a supported space with work and an adult. They are not sent home.

7. Record every use on Connect the same day: times in and out, the adult present, what led to it, what helped and how it ended.

11. Restorative conversations and repair

The restorative conversation happens the same day, once everyone is calm, led by the key mentor or another trusted adult. All staff complete restorative practice training by 25 January 2027. Use these questions:

1. What happened?

2. What were you thinking and feeling at the time?

3. Who has been affected, and how?

4. What needs to happen to put things right?

A facilitated conversation with a person who was harmed happens only if both agree and it is safe. Nobody is made to apologise or to meet someone who hurt them. Where an adult got it wrong, the adult says so and apologises.

Damage to property is repaired with effort, by agreement: cleaning, fixing with staff, helping to replace or making good. We do not fine learners and will not normally ask families to pay. Any exception is decided by the Director with the family and is never a punishment. Missed learning is caught up with support.

12. Responding to serious incidents

A serious incident is one where someone is hurt or at real risk of harm, a weapon or dangerous item is suspected, there is significant damage, or a learner leaves without permission.

1. Keep everyone safe. The second adult moves other learners away. Remove the audience.

2. Raise the ratio. Call for support straight away using the agreed call-for-help arrangement for each floor, which is set out in the zoning plan and practised at induction. The Head of AP, Lead Mentor or most senior person on site attends.

3. De-escalate using the learner's plan and Team Teach techniques: calm voice, space, few words, choices, a way out without losing face.

4. Physical intervention only by Team Teach trained staff, as a last resort to prevent injury, an offence such as an assault, or serious damage that creates a risk of injury, reasonable, proportionate and for the shortest time. Never to enforce a rule (policy 08).

5. Call 999 where there is immediate risk to life or of serious injury, or a weapon. We do not call the police to manage behaviour we can safely manage. The Director and DSL decide whether to report other possible offences, weighing the learner's welfare, the harmed person's wishes and the safety of others.

6. Look after everyone. First aid and a medical check, a trusted adult with each learner, separate support for anyone harmed.

7. Tell the DSL the same day (immediately for a safeguarding concern), and phone parents and the referring school the same day (section 19).

8. Record on Connect before the end of the day and debrief staff the same day.

If a learner leaves the building or group without permission, follow the missing learner procedure at once (policies 01 and 11): call the parent and school immediately, search the site and area, and call the police if the learner is not found within 30 minutes, or straight away where there is known risk.

The learner then continues the day in a safe space with raised staffing. If a learner leaves early because of an emergency, such as hospital or arrest, it is recorded as that. It is not an exclusion, and they are welcomed back on their next allocated day with a planned return conversation.

Where risk to others remains high, the Director and Head of AP contact the referring school and the commissioning local authority the same day to agree how the next attended day will be made safe, for example staggered arrival, timetable separation or 1:1 staffing. Care Cove never decides on its own to keep a learner away.

13. No exclusion and no informal sending home

We do not exclude, suspend or send learners home because of behaviour. That includes informal versions. We do not:

• ask a parent to collect a learner early or keep them at home for a "cooling-off" day;

• shorten a learner's day or reduce their days as a sanction;

• use internal exclusion or long periods out of learning;

• ask a referring school to exclude a learner.

A learner who is unwell may go home on health grounds, decided by the first aider or Clinical Advisor and recorded as illness. If a parent chooses to collect a learner after an incident without being asked, we record their decision and the key mentor follows up the same day.

Any temporary change to a learner's timetable must be agreed with the referring school and the commissioning local authority, recorded on Connect, time-limited, aimed at increasing time in provision and reviewed at least fortnightly. The DSL is told of every such change, because KCSIE 2026 treats part-time timetables as an Early Help indicator.

14. When behaviour is persistent

Persistent behaviour means three or more Reviews in a half term, a pattern identified at the weekly meeting, or continued risk to the learner or others. Our response adds support. It does not move the learner out.

1. Understand it. The weekly multidisciplinary case meeting looks at the pattern on Connect (times, places, lessons, people, check-in scores) and asks what the behaviour is communicating.

2. Check for unmet need: SEND, communication, sleep, hunger, pain, medication, substance use, bereavement, exploitation, harm at home or online. The Clinical Advisor advises on health and the DSL on safeguarding.

3. Talk with the family as partners, through the key mentor.

4. Adjust the plan through Plan, Do, Assess, Review: triggers, what helps, staffing up to 1:1 or 2:1, timetable, and a positive handling plan if needed.

5. Convene the TAF with the referring school and agencies, setting one up if none exists.

6. Consult the commissioner at the monthly progress meeting (or sooner) and the half-termly case review, or with the referring school's named contact for school-commissioned places.

7. Bring in multi-agency support: Early Help, CAMHS, youth justice, children's social care, and specialist assessment through the school or local authority, including an EHC needs assessment request where appropriate.

8. Use the bespoke route. Where needs genuinely exceed the core offer, the Director asks the commissioning local authority to consider a bespoke programme.

A placement only ends after recorded consultation with the referring school and the commissioning local authority, which decides. Connect will not close a placement until that consultation is recorded. See policy 30.

15. Prohibited items, searching and phones

Learners must not bring weapons, knives, alcohol, illegal drugs, vapes, energy drinks, stolen items, fireworks, pornographic images, tobacco or anything likely to be used to commit an offence or cause injury. Policy 09 explains screening, searching with consent, confiscation and when we call the police. We never search by force.

If a learner will not dock their phone, the key mentor has a private conversation first. If that does not work, staff hold the phone at reception, we call home the same day and agree a plan with the family. A phone is never taken by force. Exceptions for medical need, disability or young carer circumstances are written into the child plan (policy 10).

16. Behaviour outside the provision and online

• Off-site learning, work placements and transport. This policy and the four Rs apply in full.

• Journeys and the community. When we hear of behaviour on the way to or from Care Cove or in the community, the key mentor talks with the learner, and we tell the school and parents where it affects safety or relationships.

• Online. Filming, sharing images, threats or abuse online, between learners or towards staff, is dealt with under this policy and policies 06 and 29. Nude and semi-nude images, including AI-generated and deepfake images, go straight to the DSL.

• Safeguarding first. Behaviour outside the provision is often a sign of exploitation or harm. The DSL checks every report against the learner's contextual risk map and shares information with the commissioning local authority, the TAF and the police where thresholds are met.

17. Sexual harassment, sexual violence and misogyny

Sexual harassment, sexual violence, misogyny, and homophobic, biphobic, transphobic or racist abuse are never dismissed as "banter".

• Every report is recorded on Connect the same day and passed to the DSL immediately.

• The DSL responds under KCSIE Part Five, with separate support and a risk and support plan for each learner, and a referral to the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub where thresholds are met.

• There is no restorative meeting between learners after sexual violence or serious harassment unless the DSL judges it safe and the harmed learner freely wants it.

• KCSIE 2026 links misogyny with harmful sexual behaviour. Staff challenge sexist comments every time with a Reminder naming "I respect everyone here", and record patterns. Respect and Tech mastery lessons teach consent, misogyny and deepfakes.

18. SEND and reasonable adjustments

Behaviour can be a sign of unmet need. Each child plan follows Plan, Do, Assess, Review and aligns with any EHCP, with behaviour strategies written in. We make reasonable adjustments for disabled learners, such as movement breaks, sensory tools, processing time, visual timetables, Now and Next boards, SCERTS approaches and a quieter workspace, and we apply the four Rs in a way that never disadvantages a learner because of their disability. Where we suspect an unidentified need, we share evidence with the referring school, or the local authority for permanently excluded learners, and support a request for assessment (policy 12).

19. Working with parents and the referring school

Families are partners. Many have had poor experiences of services.

• Daily: parents see attendance and updates in the Family portal; referring schools, and the local authority for permanently excluded learners, see live attendance in the Partner portal.

• Weekly: a RESET postcard goes home.

• Same day, by phone: the key mentor, or the Head of AP for serious incidents, phones the parent and the referring school's named contact (or the local authority's named officer for a permanently excluded learner) after any incident where someone was hurt or put at risk, significant damage, physical intervention, a search or confiscation, police involvement, phone refusal, or a learner leaving without permission. Parents are told unless the DSL judges that this would increase risk to the child. The DSL decides whether to tell a social worker.

• Reviews: referring schools are invited to visit and join reviews. The strategies that work go into the plan and, at reintegration, into our written strategy guidance for the receiving school.

Reminders and short Resets are summarised in regular updates, not phoned through individually.

20. Recording and weekly review

Record on Care Cove Connect the same day: respect moments; every Reset, Repair and serious incident (time, place, people involved, what happened before, what the learner and staff did, how it ended, the repair, and who was told when); regulation space use; physical interventions (policy 08); searches (policy 09); and safeguarding concerns, which go to the DSL immediately (policy 01). If Connect is down, use the paper fallback forms and enter them afterwards.

The weekly multidisciplinary case meeting reviews each learner's behaviour, regulation space use, respect moments and check-in scores and updates plans. Behaviour data feeds the monthly progress meeting, half-termly case reviews and our reports to commissioning local authorities.

21. Supporting staff

Nobody manages a difficult moment alone.

• Training: Team Teach de-escalation and positive handling before working with learners (annual refresher), Thrive, the Nurture UK three-day programme, and restorative practice by 25 January 2027.

• Same-day debrief with the Head of AP or DSL after any serious incident or physical intervention: what happened, how staff are, what we learn.

• Supervision: fortnightly one-to-one for mentors, half-termly practice reviews for teachers, and monthly group reflective practice led by an SWMC social worker.

• Wellbeing: staff can ask for support from My Solution Wellbeing at any time. A member of staff who is hurt is supported, the incident is investigated, and Care Cove supports them if they choose to report an assault to the police.

• Concerns: staff can raise concerns about practice with the Head of AP, the Director or the SWMC Chair (policy 04).

22. Monitoring and review

• The Head of AP reviews behaviour data weekly and reports trends to the Director monthly.

• The SWMC audits behaviour every term: incidents, regulation space use, physical interventions, any proposed placement endings, learner and parent voice on feeling safe, and differences by ethnicity, sex, SEND and looked-after status. Black Caribbean and Roma children, disadvantaged children and children with SEND are disproportionately excluded in Sheffield, so we check our practice does not repeat this.

• We report against the outcome aims agreed with each commissioning local authority.

• The SWMC reviews this policy every year, or sooner after a serious incident, a change in law or guidance, or a contract change. It is available to the commissioning local authority at any time.

23. Related policies

• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 03 Managing Allegations Against Staff and Low-Level Concerns
• 04 Whistleblowing
• 06 Online Safety and Acceptable Use
• 08 Positive Handling and Physical Intervention
• 09 Searching, Screening and Confiscation
• 10 Mobile Phones and Digital Devices
• 11 Attendance and Children Missing Education
• 12 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• 14 Therapeutic Practice and Clinical Governance
• 18 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• 21 Staff Code of Conduct
• 26 Off-site Learning and Educational Visits
• 29 Anti-Bullying
• 30 Referrals, Admissions and Ending Placements

Appendix A: The four Rs quick guide for staff

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.