Children, Schools and Families Bill

That is where I am about to move to, but we needed to identify the parameters before moving to questions of substance and merit. It is arguable that there are circumstances in which people in loco parentis—that includes not just parents, but people with parental responsibility, so it is a reasonably wide category—should be able to take certain actions. The question is whether teachers and those in similar positions of responsibility should have the right in certain circumstances to take such action as would be available to a person in loco parentis, and whether they could therefore be justified in taking action that would amount to what one might call, in round language, reasonable chastisement. I am sure that the Secretary of State knows that there are problems in schools. Evidence has recently been presented to me of teachers being subjected to extremely difficult circumstances, including violent behaviour. We must ask whether there should be a blanket prohibition on certain actions, without regard to the circumstances of the parent or other person in loco parentis. The definition of children includes not only five, six and seven-year-olds, but older children who might be described as youths. That applies not only to boys; I regret to say that these days it might also apply to girls. In some cases a school, or another establishment of the kind to which the Secretary of State and I agree that the rule might apply, might be in such a state that the person who is charged with maintaining discipline might not be able to run things. I have heard from supply teachers, fairly recently, that they have found it absolutely impossible to conduct any teaching in certain classrooms because of the degree of bad behaviour and violence exhibited.