The Ministerial review found that the practices of locking gates, doors or windows in response to a skills deficit—which are currently defined under the DSA as not being restrictive practices and are subject to a policy-based safeguarding framework—should instead be defined and regulated as restrictive practices. This would ensure the same level of safeguards apply to these practices as to other types of restrictive practices, and would achieve greater national consistency (given that these practices are considered restrictive practices under the relevant Commonwealth legislation).
This finding is consistent with the findings of the independent review. The regulation of the practices of locking gates, doors or windows in response to a skills deficit is also considered in more detail in subsequent sections of the consultation paper.
