When Isolation Feels Like the Only Safe Option: Supporting Staff With the Skills Behind Behaviour Management

Behaviour management in schools is rarely straightforward. Education professionals are balancing increasing pupil needs, safeguarding responsibilities and the expectation to maintain safe, calm learning environments for everyone.

Recent research has sparked discussion about the use of isolation rooms in schools and their potential impact on pupil wellbeing. While headlines often focus on whether isolation should be used at all, the day-to-day reality in education settings is more complex. For many staff, isolation is not a preferred strategy, it is the point reached when there appears to be no safe alternative available.

Understanding why that happens is essential if schools are to reduce reliance on reactive measures and support positive behaviour more effectively.

What the Recent Study Found

A large-scale study examining behaviour practices in secondary schools analysed responses from more than 34,000 pupils and explored how disciplinary approaches affect wellbeing.

Among its findings:

• Around 1 in 12 pupils reported being placed in isolation at least once per week

• Pupils experiencing isolation spent an average of 8.5 hours per week removed from mainstream classroom learning

• Some students reported lower feelings of belonging and weaker relationships with school staff following repeated isolation experiences

• Disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs were more likely to experience isolation measures

The findings have contributed to an important professional conversation, not about assigning blame but about understanding how behaviour systems operate under real-world pressures.

The Reality Facing School Staff

Teachers and support staff make hundreds of behaviour decisions every week, often within seconds.

Their responsibilities include:

• keeping all pupils safe

• protecting learning time

• preventing escalation

• meeting safeguarding duties

• supporting individual emotional needs

When behaviour escalates rapidly, particularly where safety or significant disruption is involved, staff must act immediately. In those moments, removal from the classroom can feel like the safest and most responsible decision available. Isolation, therefore, is often less about punishment and more about creating space to stabilise a situation.

Why Staff Sometimes Feel They Have No Other Choice

Behaviour incidents rarely begin at crisis level. Escalation typically develops in stages:

• A pupil becomes anxious or dysregulated

• Communication breaks down

• Behaviour intensifies

• Immediate intervention becomes necessary

Without practical tools to intervene early, situations can progress quickly beyond low-level classroom management strategies. This does not reflect a lack of care or professionalism. In fact, it often reflects the opposite: staff prioritising safety for everyone involved. However, when staff feel uncertain about how to safely de-escalate behaviour, available options narrow. 

Isolation becomes the most predictable way to regain stability.

Behaviour Challenges Are Increasingly Complex

Schools support pupils with a wide range of needs, including:

• emotional and mental health challenges

• neurodiversity and SEND needs

• communication difficulties

• external stressors affecting regulation and behaviour

Behaviour that appears disruptive is frequently linked to difficulties with emotional regulation rather than intentional defiance. This means traditional consequences alone may stop behaviour temporarily but do not always build the skills pupils need to respond differently next time. At the same time, staff are expected to respond calmly, safely, and consistently, often without specialist behaviour training.

Skills Give Staff More Options

The discussion around isolation should not focus on removing tools from schools. Instead, it should focus on expanding the range of safe options available to staff before situations reach crisis point.

When education professionals are equipped with practical behaviour management skills, they can:

• recognise early warning signs of escalation

• use communication techniques that lower confrontation

• support emotional regulation in real time

• maintain safety without immediate removal from class

• reintegrate pupils successfully following incidents

Isolation may still occasionally be necessary. The difference is that it becomes one option among many, rather than the only reliable response.

Supporting Staff Is a Safeguarding Priority

Safeguarding extends beyond responding to harm, it includes creating environments where pupils and staff feel safe, supported and understood.

Equipping staff with behaviour management skills helps to:

• reduce crisis incidents

• protect staff wellbeing and confidence

• maintain positive relationships with pupils

• support consistent, proportionate responses

When professionals feel confident in how to respond, behaviour management becomes proactive rather than reactive.

Moving the Conversation Forward

The recent research provides valuable insight into pupil experiences but it also highlights the pressures facing schools navigating increasingly complex behavioural needs.

The goal is not to criticise teachers or remove necessary safety measures.

Instead, the focus should be on ensuring staff have the training and confidence needed so that difficult decisions are made from a position of skill. When staff have more tools available they gain more choices, leading to better outcomes for everyone in the school community.

How SecuriCare Supports Education Settings

SecuriCare provides training designed to give education professionals practical, confidence-building skills for managing behaviour safely and effectively.

Our programmes help staff to:

• understand the drivers behind challenging behaviour

• apply safe de-escalation strategies

• support emotional regulation in children and young people

• maintain dignity and safety during incidents

• strengthen safeguarding through preventative practice

By investing in staff skills, schools can reduce escalation, support wellbeing and create safer learning environments without placing blame on those working hardest to support pupils every day.

If your school or education setting is reviewing behaviour approaches, strengthening safeguarding practice or looking to build staff confidence in managing challenging situations, SecuriCare can help.

Speak to our team about practical behaviour management training designed for real classroom environments.

Contact SecuriCare today to discuss your setting’s needs.