Schools will be legally required to record and report to parents each “significant incident” involving the use of reasonable force, plans released by the government today have proposed.
The Department for Education has released an , which was last published in 2013.
In a released this afternoon, the DfE has set out plans for a new statutory requirement for schools to report and record the use of reasonable force from September 2025.
It defines a “significant incident” as “any incident where the use of reasonable force goes beyond appropriate physical contact between pupils and staff”.
The requirement to record significant incidents will apply even if the use of reasonable force is agreed with parents or carers as part of a pupil’s behaviour support plan.
A record of any such incident should be made in writing as soon as practicable after the incident, the DfE said.
Minister warns of ‘shameful’ uses of reasonable force
The updated guidance comes after Tes revealed that one in four primary teachers and leaders has had to restrain a pupil in the first half of the 2024-25 autumn term.
Commenting on the guidance, education minister Stephen Morgan warned that a “shameful number of cases of mistreatment against vulnerable pupils have come to light under the guise of ‘reasonable force and restraint’”.
“The use of reasonable force is sometimes necessary to keep everyone in the school community safe, but misuse can leave significant and long-lasting effects on the pupils, staff members and parents,” Mr Morgan continued.
The consultation will close on 29 April 2025.
Guidance on using reasonable force on pupils with SEND
The updated guidance sets out further recommendations on how staff should work with pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and calls on schools to understand the “underlying triggers of challenging behaviour”.
This will allow schools to provide “proactive support, create an inclusive environment and consider the impact of school policies on pupils with SEND”, the guidance said.
The DfE also said that schools should get staff who know individual pupils well to help “identify and manage risk when challenging behaviour is more likely to occur” and “develop proactive strategies to reduce the likelihood of reasonable force being used”.
The guidance further recommended that governing bodies “regularly review and interrogate data on reasonable force and other restrictive interventions to identify patterns and implement improvements”.
Leaders should train staff based on staff needs
There is no statutory expectation for schools to train staff, but the guidance advised that staff who are likely to need to use reasonable force should be “adequately trained in its safe and lawful use”.
In a continuation of the 2013 guidance, the DfE still expects school leaders to choose their own training that is ”best suited to the school’s circumstances and staff needs”.
A call for evidence for the use of reasonable force was launched by the DfE in 2023.
Submissions highlighted the need for greater clarity to support staff in using reasonable force lawfully and appropriately, the DfE said, with concerns made that it was “excessive” and “prolonged”.
Two-thirds of respondents to the call for evidence (74 per cent) were in favour of implementing national training standards as a means of providing consistency in approaches across the country.
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