This is an interview I did with Tony Bleetman.

It follows on nicely from the one that I did with Eric Baskind the other day and adds a professional medical perspective on a lot of restraint related issues.

Some of the main points are time stamped below:

00:23 - Inspectorate issues with the Youth Justice Board over certain physical restraint techniques (similar to the recent CQC issues raised with Eric Baskind); 

01:45 - The basic principles of how to assist an organisation to understand what the challenges are in managing behaviour even before we get to the physical skills required;

03:26 - Providing the skills relevant to the needs of the organisation;

04:18 - The use of pain-compliance techniques and 'blanket-bans' on techniques not being helpful;

05:15 - Tony's introduction to the late great Peter Boatman and the challenge given and what it taught him;

07:29 - Tony's introduction to other industry sectors; 

08:52 - The importance of working with the co-operation of staff and management to address the skills needed and how the system can evolve over time;

09:53 - Why having a rigid and inflexible set of physical skills don't work;

11:26 - The 'open book' approach to helping organisations get what they need;

13:42 - The economic benefits to the organisation in the cost savings and how we saved one organisation 1/2 a million pounds in six months and the other savings in terms of litigation etc;

15:34 - Why are some techniques being taught that shouldn't be taught?;

20:38 - A funny story about a 'shin-kick and a fire extinguisher';

22:53 - The important point about staff being allowed to use reasonable force if and when presented with a situation they couldn't have planned for;

24:53 - Dealing with issues that hadn't be dealt with properly before such as, nasogastric feeding and ligature removal;

26:42 - The George Floyd case and the 'breathing talking fallacy' (as in the Jimmy Mubenga case) and some important facts on positional asphyxia;

32:58 - The three mechanisms of death from pressure to the neck;

34:29 - The belief that when door supervisors (for example) restrain someone on the floor they must hold the restrained person there until the police arrive.