It would protect teachers “acting in good faith” including using “reasonable physical restraint where necessary to prevent harm”. At present, the Ministry of Education says physical restraint is a last resort, used only to prevent imminent harm where there is no other option. A Physical Restraint Advisory Group developed new rules and guidelines in 2022, which went through public consultation involving 268 submissions. The devil was in the detail: within this overall decrease, the number of stand-downs because of physical assaults by children had actually increased. Increased use of physical restraint was counterproductive in creating a safe environment and there was no guarantee it would be applied consistently across schools, she said.