Revised use of reasonable force and other restrictive interventions in schools guidance

The Department for Education is seeking views on the revised ‘Use of reasonable force and other restrictive interventions in schools’ guidance supports schools to:

• Meet the new statutory requirement to record every significant incident of use of force and report these incidents to the parents of the pupils involved, effective from September 2025.
• Proactively minimise the need to use reasonable force and other restrictive interventions through prevention, de-escalation and analysing data to support improvement planning.
• Support staff to understand when and how to use force or other restrictive interventions safely and lawfully.
• Support staff who work with pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).
• Meet their safeguarding duties towards staff and pupils.

Read the guidance here.

The updating of the 2013 use of reasonable force guidance is long overdue and follows a DfE call for evidence in 2023. The current guidance provides important support for teachers and other staff, but fails to recognise the vulnerability of some students, especially those with SEND, and lacks recognition of the long-lasting impact of restraint and other restrictive measures on students. While speaking to parents about incidents is seen as good practice, it is currently up to schools to decide whether it is appropriate to report the use of force to them. Of most concern from a safeguarding point of view is that the onus to prove a complaint about a use of force is placed upon the person making the complaint, for example a child, rather than for the member of staff to demonstrate the steps they took were reasonable and staff members should “expect the full backing of SLT when they have used force”. We would be encouraging school leaders to take a balanced and proportionate approach to the necessary use of force, listening to everyone involved, weighing evidence, identifying learning for all and ensuring the safety of the whole school community.

The revisions take these points on board, in particular responding to the Equality & Human Rights Commission inquiry, the updated Behaviour in Schools guidance and the Child Safeguarding Panel Review research on Safeguarding Children in Residential Settings. There is a new statutory requirement from September to record each incident of the use of force and ensure parents, seen as the most important protectors for students, are informed. There is an emphasis on de-escalation, anticipating and learning from events and for staff to feel confident in their actions and the legal framework that supports them when they need to intervene. There will be a need for school leaders and governors to introduce systems and processes to carefully monitor, challenge and improve approaches to interventions with students.

The guidance is not a panacea. 

Schools and colleges are struggling with heightened challenges from students and need to act to protect themselves and the students in their care. The consultation reflects views, particularly from parents, that their children’s needs are sometimes beyond the resources available to the school. The proposed national training standards will improve consistency, but do not address this underlying need (nor is it indicated how the new requirements to train relevant staff will be funded). A stronger approach to data collection, analysis and learning must result in effective actions that change the experience of students and staff. This will require access to the right specialised support as well as the production of some statutory guidance.

We should consider carefully how we interpret staff who are likely to need to use physical force, and thus be trained. It would distort school culture and affect other teachers’ authority to have a group of trained staff that respond to incidents who are more likely to resort to force. Our first resort should always be to the authority through relationship a teacher or other member of staff builds with a student or class.

Seclusion

The differentiation of seclusion and removal is highlighted in the consultation, even though the definition of removal is not included in the proposed guidance (it appears in Behaviour in Schools). Seclusion “involves the supervised confinement and isolation of a pupil, away from other pupils, in an area from which the pupil is prevented from leaving of their own free will” – it should never be a punishment. Removal is “where a pupil, for serious disciplinary reasons, is required to spend a limited time out of the classroom at the instruction of a member of staff, in a setting where they can continue their education”. Students themselves may struggle to distinguish which action is being taken – seclusion often feels punitive and staff will do well to communicate the nuances of the guidance here without communicating feelings of punishment.

Schools may do well to look at the journey of their colleagues working with children in residential children’s homes where the incidence of physical restraint has been reduced over the years. Owning the responsibility that resorting to these interventions means we have been unsuccessful is an important first step in having the agency to effect change. Teasing apart the incident through a root cause analysis approach, enabling leaders to challenge us to learn from the incidents and opening up communication with staff, students and parents/carers creates a more strongly reflective environment where we do not accept high levels of physical intervention or restrictions. All of these are possible while maintaining discipline, safety for staff and students and build on the potency of our staff through their relationships with students rather than the anxiety and fear of blame. Often settings with high levels of intervention have unhelpful processes embedded in their culture, and through exploring these assumptions and recognising when it is important to intervene we can be more successful with our students.

Safeguarding Network will be responding to the consultation and we are happy to be involved in discussions with our members and the wider education community on this crucial issue.

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