Page 2172 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2018
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I present the Senior Practitioner Bill 2018 to the Assembly. The bill creates a new role of senior practitioner as well as providing a formal framework for the overall reduction of restrictive practices in the ACT and for working to achieve the elimination of their use in individual circumstances where possible.
A restrictive practice is defined by the bill as a practice that is used to restrict the rights or freedom of movement of a person for the primary purpose of protecting the person or others from harm. It may include, for example, the use of a chemical substance to restrict or subdue a person’s movement; limiting a person’s ability to move freely, access their surroundings or engage in an activity; or the seclusion or sole confinement of a person in a room or other space from which free exit is prevented, explicitly or implicitly, or not facilitated.
This bill has been informed by extensive consultation with the ACT community. Consultations were undertaken through all phases between November 2016 and May this year. I take this opportunity to thank all of our community and sector stakeholders, including the ACT Human Rights Commission, for their generous participation in this process.
In various discussions with community members, there has been overwhelming support for the senior practitioner role. The community has welcomed the educative role of the senior practitioner, which will begin ahead of the bill, proposed to commence on 1 September 2018, and well ahead of the offences provisions, which are not proposed to commence until 1 July 2019. This staggered timing ensures that the senior practitioner will have time to engage, educate and work through implementation issues with those organisations and people affected by the legislation.
The senior practitioner will help to guide decisions and provide education to foster positive alternatives to restrictive practices which preserve a person’s rights and freedoms. Key stakeholders have welcomed the senior practitioner providing greater clarity about when the use of restrictive practices should be authorised.
This bill will ensure that, in the circumstances that restrictive practices are required, people will have clear and expert advice and support. It will ensure that the practices will be part of a positive behaviour support plan and that they will be used for the shortest time possible—in short, working towards their elimination in any particular instance.
This bill will provide greater and much called for assurance for all providers who work with people who have challenging and complex behaviours. We know that restrictive practices are more likely to be used in response to the behaviours of some of the most vulnerable people in our community: people with disability, older people, people living with psychosocial disability and children and young people.
The bill enables greater protection from the unnecessary use of restrictive practices by establishing a formal protection and oversight mechanism for the ACT. It enshrines the principle that providers should only use restrictive practices in very limited
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