MPs are backing a campaign to make private companies accountable for handcuffing children in care while transporting them.

MPs want to ban vulnerable children as young as 10 from being handcuffed and “treated like animals” while being taken to and from school and foster homes.

Private companies transporting children between care and foster homes, schools and hospitals – often in “caged” vehicles – are legally allowed to handcuff and physically restrain them as a last resort to stop at-risk children harming themselves or others.

But campaigners say the reality is that handcuffs are being used as a “go-to option any time a child shows any sign of resistance” – and unlike other parts of the youth care system, companies are not required to record or report any instances of a child being put in physical restraints.

A letter addressed to Nadhim Zahawi, education secretary, calling for the collection of this information to be made a requirement – with a view to ultimately banning the practice – is now making its way around parliament and has cross-party support. It follows an early day motion to ban the practice tabled by Labour’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy, which has been backed by 25 MPs so far.

“Rather than treating a young person who has already been traumatised and dealing with extremely stressful and life-altering situations with care, kindness and respect, they are treated like animals,” said Emily Aklan, founder of children’s care organisation Serenity Welfare which is behind the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign.

These are “innocent children who have not committed nor been suspected of committing a crime,” she added.