Use of reasonable force in schools

The power: section 93 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006

Section 93 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 gives members of staff of a school in England and Wales the power to use reasonable force on a pupil for three purposes. Subsection (1) of section 93 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 reads: “A person to whom this section applies may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances for the purpose of preventing a pupil from doing (or continuing to do) any of the following, namely– (a) committing any offence, (b) causing personal injury to, or damage to the property of, any person (including the pupil himself), or (c) prejudicing the maintenance of good order and discipline at the school or among any pupils receiving education at the school, whether during a teaching session or otherwise.”

Three further rules in the Act shape the power:

• Who. Section 95 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 defines a member of the staff as “(a) any teacher who works at the school, and (b) any other person who, with the authority of the head teacher, has lawful control or charge of pupils for whom education is being provided at the school”. Teachers have the power automatically; teaching assistants, midday supervisors and other support staff have it when the headteacher has authorised them to be in charge of pupils.
• Where. Under section 93(3) the power applies on the school premises, or elsewhere when “the member of the staff has lawful control or charge of the pupil concerned” – on a trip or a sports fixture, for example. Under section 93(6), the first purpose also covers conduct that would be an offence but for a pupil's age, so it reaches children below the age of criminal responsibility.
• Never punishment. Section 93(4) says the power does not authorise “the giving of corporal punishment within the meaning of section 548 of EA 1996”. Section 548 of the Education Act 1996 defines corporal punishment as “doing anything for the purpose of punishing that child (whether or not there are other reasons for doing it) which, apart from any justification, would constitute battery”, and section 548(5) excludes anything done to avert “an immediate danger of personal injury to, or … an immediate danger to the property of, any person (including the child himself)”.

The Act does not define “reasonable”. The Department for Education's guidance Restrictive interventions, including use of reasonable force, in schools does: “Reasonable means using no more force than is necessary for the least amount of time, the application of which will depend on the circumstances.” Paragraph 205 of Keeping children safe in education 2026 (KCSIE) uses the same words, and says reasonable force “can range from guiding a child to safety by the arm, to more extreme circumstances such as breaking up a fight or where a child needs to be restrained to prevent violence or injury.” The Equality and Human Rights Commission, in its May 2025 response to the consultation on the guidance, warned that the statutory phrase “is imprecise and may be understood or interpreted as meaning a low threshold for the use of force”; that response predates the new duties, and expected the recording duty from September 2025, whereas it began on 1 April 2026.

The DfE guidance, revised and renamed, replaced the previous advice, Use of reasonable force in schools, on 1 April 2026; the Use of reasonable force in schools publication page still hosts the old document, marked effective until 31 March 2026. Most of the new guidance is non-statutory. Its status note says: “The governing body or proprietor of a school in England must have regard to this in relation to recording and reporting each significant incident involving the use of force by members of staff. The rest of this guidance is non-statutory.” It applies to “all schools whether maintained, non-maintained or independent (including academy schools and alternative provision academies), maintained nursery schools and pupil referral units”. Further education colleges have a separate power, in section 85C of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, which the guidance does not cover.

What counts: force, restraint, seclusion and ordinary contact

The guidance's title puts restrictive interventions in schools first, because the duties now cover more than holding a pupil. Its terminology section gives the definitions the duties turn on:

• Reasonable force: “a term used in legislation which includes physical restrictive interventions. All members of school staff have the legal power to use reasonable force in limited circumstances.”
• Significant incident: “any incident where the use of force goes beyond appropriate physical contact between pupils and staff as described in ‘Other physical contact with pupils’ within this document. This includes when physical force is used to implement a non-physical restrictive intervention.”
• Restraint: “a non-disciplinary intervention which immobilises a pupil or limits their movement. This may or may not include direct physical contact. For example, holding a pupil's arms to their sides or removing a pupil's crutches would both be considered forms of restraint.”
• Seclusion: “a non-disciplinary intervention involving keeping a pupil confined to a place away from others, and preventing them from leaving either by physical obstruction, blocking, or making them believe they will be punished if they try to leave.”

Seclusion is not removal from the classroom or isolation as a sanction. The regulations define it as detaining a pupil “in a place apart from any other person (except the member or members of staff) otherwise than as a disciplinary penalty”. Keeping a pupil alone in a room by blocking the doorway or securing it so they cannot leave is seclusion. Holding a pupil's arms to their sides is physical restraint; taking away a walking aid is restraint without any physical contact, and the guidance says it must still be recorded. Where staff use physical force to seclude a pupil, that is also a significant use of force.

What is never acceptable. The guidance is plain: “It is illegal to use force on a pupil for the purpose of punishment. Pupils should not be restrained in a way that affects their airway, breathing or circulation, for example, by covering the mouth and/or nose, or applying pressure to the neck region or abdomen.” It warns that force can be dangerous, particularly on the ground, and says: “If a pupil is unintentionally held on the ground, staff should release their holds or re-position into a safer alternative or standing position as quickly as possible.”

No “no contact” policy. “Schools should not have a ‘no contact’ policy. Additionally, schools should not grant any requests by parents or staff members not to use reasonable force and/or other restrictive interventions.” Ordinary physical contact described in the guidance's section on other physical contact with pupils is not a significant incident and does not trigger the recording duty; the staff behaviour policy guide covers how a code of conduct handles physical contact.

Searching. “A member of staff can use such force as is reasonable to search for legally prohibited items, but not to search for items banned under the school rules only.” The power is in section 550ZB(5) of the Education Act 1996; the mobile phone policy guide explains what that means for confiscating phones.

Deciding to use force: necessary, proportionate, and the pupil's welfare

KCSIE paragraph 206 leaves the decision with the people in the room: whether to use reasonable force “is down to the professional judgement of the staff concerned within the context of the law and should always depend on individual circumstances.” The DfE guidance gives that judgement a structure of three questions:

1. Is it necessary? Is there a less restrictive way to manage the risk, and will the intervention reduce the risk or escalate it?
2. Is it proportionate? “Staff should use the least amount of force or least restrictive intervention necessary for the least amount of time required to reduce the relevant risks”, taking account of the pupil's age, size, special educational needs or disabilities, medical conditions and the school's duties under the Equality Act 2010.
3. Has the pupil's welfare been considered? Their dignity, any history of trauma, their communication needs, and telling the pupil what is happening and why.

Pupils with SEND. KCSIE paragraph 207 asks schools to “recognise the additional vulnerability” of children with SEND, mental health problems or medical conditions, and to “consider their duties under the Equality Act 2010 … for example in relation to making reasonable adjustments and their Public Sector Equality Duty.” The DfE guidance goes further: “Where there is an identified risk, such as increased likelihood in the need to use reasonable force and/or other restrictive interventions, schools must have risk assessments in place and where possible, mitigate risks such as through training and prevention strategies.” A behaviour support plan agreed with parents can set out when closer physical contact may be appropriate for a particular pupil.

Staff training. There are no set training requirements: neither the law nor the DfE guidance requires a particular training programme or certification for school staff in England. The guidance says staff likely to use force “should be adequately trained in its safe and lawful use and in preventative strategies”, and adds: “We trust school leaders to make decisions on training based on their school's individual contexts and needs.” Who has been trained, and when, is a record worth keeping alongside the incident records.

The policy. The rules on force sit within the school's wider approach to behaviour management: its restrictive interventions policy “may be part of the school's behaviour policy or a standalone document, but it should be accessible, consistent, and straightforward to follow. It should clearly set out the circumstances in which staff may use reasonable force and seclusion and the procedures for recording and reporting such incidents.” The guidance also reminds employers of their duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to protect staff, which is why risk assessments sit beside the policy.

The reasonable force record: the April 2026 recording requirements

Section 93A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 requires every school in England to have a procedure for recording each significant use of force in writing as soon as practicable. It was written into the Act in 2009 and commenced on 1 April 2026 by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (Commencement No. 7) Order 2025. Section 93A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 says:

• “The governing body of a school in England must ensure that a procedure is in place for– (a) recording each significant incident in which a member of the staff uses force on a pupil for whom education is being provided at the school (a “use of force incident”); and (b) reporting each use of force incident … to each parent of the pupil as soon as practicable after the incident.” (subsection 1)
• “The governing body must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the procedure is complied with.” (subsection 2)
• “The procedure must require that a record of a use of force incident is made in writing as soon as practicable after the incident.” (subsection 3)

For an academy, free school or independent school, “governing body” means the proprietor. The legal deadline is “as soon as practicable”, not the same day; the statutory guidance sets the aim: “It should be recorded by the staff member(s) involved and they should endeavour to do this no later than the same day.” The duty applies even where force is part of an agreed plan: “The requirement to record applies even if the use of restrictive interventions in certain circumstances is agreed with parents as part of a pupil's behaviour support plan.”

The statutory guidance lists what schools should record, as a minimum, for each significant use of force:

1. names of the pupil and the staff directly involved;
2. any relevant needs or circumstances of the pupil, including whether they have an identified special educational need or disability and their SEN status code;
3. the time, date, location and approximate duration of the intervention;
4. a brief account of the incident: what led up to it, identified or potential triggers if known, any preventative or de-escalation strategies used, and, where relevant, what type of reasonable force was applied, the degree of force and any physical injuries;
5. a brief account of why the use of force was assessed as necessary in that instance;
6. any post-incident support, such as medical treatment for injuries or other adverse impacts.

The guidance suggests schools may also keep the pupil's and witnesses' accounts, when and how parents were told, and any follow-up. Many schools still call this a positive handling form or a physical intervention record, and the policy a positive handling policy; the name does not matter, but the contents should now cover the minimum in the statutory guidance, which the governing body must have regard to.

Seclusion and restraint without force. The Schools (Recording and Reporting of Seclusion and Restraint) (No. 2) (England) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1348), also in force from 1 April 2026, require a procedure for recording each incident in which staff seclude, restrain or immobilise a pupil. Restraint means that staff “restrict the pupil’s movement otherwise than as a disciplinary penalty”, including by “depriving the pupil of an auxiliary aid that they usually use to help them move”, so recording restraint without force is now a legal duty, not only good practice. The guidance is explicit: “For restraint incidents that occur without direct physical contact, for example, the removal of a walking aid, these must be recorded”. Maintained schools follow regulation 4; academies and other independent schools meet the duty through paragraph 16A of the Independent School Standards, where staff “includes supply staff and volunteers”; non-maintained special schools follow paragraph 27A of their own regulations and may use their incident book. The seclusion and restraint minimum list in the guidance is shorter than the force list; use the right one.

An incident that is both seclusion or restraint and a significant use of force is recorded once, under section 93A. Regulation 6 (and paragraphs 16A(3) and 27A(3) for independent and non-maintained special schools) says the seclusion and restraint procedure need not cover an incident that “also constitutes a use of force incident within the meaning of section 93A”, and the guidance adds: “The same information does not need to be reported twice.”

Reception and nursery classes. Schools with reception or nursery classes also follow the early years foundation stage. Paragraph 3.76 of the EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers is stricter than section 93A: “Providers must keep a record of any occasion where physical intervention is used, and parents and/or carers must be informed on the same day, or as soon as reasonably practicable.” That covers any physical intervention, not only significant incidents.

How long to keep it. Neither section 93A, the 2025 regulations nor the DfE guidance sets a retention period for force records. They follow the school's records retention schedule, and a record that becomes part of a safeguarding or allegation file is kept for as long as that file.

Telling parents, debriefing and the governors' review

Section 93A requires every school in England to report each significant use of force to each parent of the pupil as soon as practicable. The statutory guidance says governing bodies and proprietors “should endeavour to do this no later than the same day”, and: “Schools should communicate this information to parents in writing. For example, via email or online messaging system.”

Two exceptions are in the Act. No report is made where the pupil is aged 20 or over. And under section 93A(5), the person reporting (“R” in the Act) “must not report it to that parent if it appears to R that doing so would be likely to result in significant harm to the pupil”; the report then goes to another parent, or, if there is no parent who can safely be told, to “the local authority within whose area the pupil is ordinarily resident”. “Parent” includes a local authority that accommodates the pupil under section 20 of the Children Act 1989. For seclusion and restraint, maintained schools supply parents with a copy of the written record; independent schools, including academies, and non-maintained special schools must give parents information about the incident, which the guidance asks them to give in writing.

Debriefing. The guidance asks schools to support the pupil and staff afterwards, and says the process “should ideally be facilitated by a staff member who was not involved in the incident and may also benefit from the presence of an additional person to ensure impartiality and support.” A follow-up conversation with parents is good practice rather than a duty.

Injuries. An injury goes in the accident record as well as the force record. Under RIDDOR, the Health and Safety Executive's Incident reporting in schools (EDIS1) says an injury to a pupil is reportable only where it “results in a pupil either being killed or taken directly to a hospital for treatment”, and only if caused by an accident “from or in connection with a work activity”. Non-consensual physical violence to a member of staff at work, such as an assault by a pupil, is reportable if it results in death, a specified injury or over seven days' incapacity, and that incapacity must arise from a physical injury, not a psychological reaction. The school accident book guide covers the rest.

Governors. Compliance is the governors' responsibility: the governing body or proprietor “must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the procedure is complied with” (section 93A(2), mirrored in regulation 4(2)). The guidance asks them to “regularly review and interrogate data on restrictive interventions”, including to “identify any disproportionate use of restrictive interventions in relation to pupils who share protected characteristics, have SEN, or other types of vulnerability”, while cautioning: “Analysis should be proportionate and avoid over-interpreting small subgroups of people.”

Ofsted. In state-funded schools, Ofsted's state-funded school inspection toolkit (June 2026) asks whether “leaders and staff make sure that restrictive physical intervention is used as a last resort, and that these incidents are analysed carefully to minimise the need for the use of force”. “Use of force or restrictive intervention is excessive and/or unsafe” is one of the indicators that attendance and behaviour are likely to be graded urgent improvement.

Complaints and allegations. A parent unhappy with how force was used can use the school complaints procedure. An allegation that force was inappropriate goes further: “the procedures in Keeping Children Safe in Education should be followed. This includes the provisions regarding suspension of staff.” KCSIE paragraph 447 says that where an allegation is about physical contact such as restraint, the strategy discussion or the initial evaluation with the local authority designated officer “should take into account that teachers and other school and college staff are entitled to use reasonable force to control or restrain children in certain circumstances”, and paragraph 462 says: “Suspension should not be an automatic response when an allegation is reported.” The allegations against staff guide covers that file, in which the force record becomes evidence. Physical contact that breaks the staff code without reaching the harm threshold may instead be a low-level concern.

The report, the reply and the messages around an incident

The force record is written in the school's own recording system. The conversation around it rarely is. A teaching assistant messages the office from Year 4 asking for a second adult. The class teacher sends the same-day report to a parent from her own phone because the office has closed. The parent replies at nine in the evening, upset, asking why nobody rang. The next morning the deputy and the parent agree, by text, what will change in the behaviour support plan.

Two of those messages bear directly on what the guidance asks for: the same-day report is the written notice to parents, and the agreed change to the plan is the follow-up the guidance suggests schools may also record. The DfE itself suggests the report can go by “online messaging system”, and the report as sent is the evidence that the duty was met; the parent's reply and the follow-up show how the school responded. If they sit on a member of staff's personal phone, governors reviewing the data cannot see them, and the school cannot produce them when a complaint or an allegation arrives months later.

ComplyChat is designed to keep those conversations on the school's record. Staff, and parents added by their mobile number, talk in channels the school controls; a mobile number verified by SMS is an identity, so a parent does not need an account on the school's systems; and everyone added is told the channel is on the record and can object or leave. On paid plans, once the school's tenant is connected, conversations are kept under the retention schedules within its own Microsoft 365 subscription. ComplyChat is not an incident log, a behaviour system or an MIS: it does not hold the force record, the seclusion and restraint record or the governors' data, and the record itself belongs in the system your policy names.

A question for the next governors' meeting: when a parent replies to a same-day force report, where does that reply end up, and would it be in the data you review?

Questions people ask

Who can use reasonable force in schools?

Any teacher who works at the school, and any other member of staff whom the headteacher has authorised to have lawful control or charge of pupils, under sections 93 and 95 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The power applies on the premises and elsewhere when the member of staff is in charge of the pupil, such as on a school trip.

What should be considered when using reasonable force?

Three questions, according to the DfE's 2026 guidance: is it necessary, is it proportionate, and has the pupil's welfare been considered. That means looking for a less restrictive option first, using the least force for the least time with regard to the pupil's age, size, SEND, medical conditions and the Equality Act 2010, and protecting the pupil's dignity and telling them what is happening and why.

What is the new guidance on restrictive interventions in schools in 2026?

It is the Department for Education's Restrictive interventions, including use of reasonable force, in schools, published on 18 December 2025 and effective from 1 April 2026, when it replaced the Use of reasonable force in schools advice. It comes with two legal duties for schools in England from the same date: to record and report each significant use of force under section 93A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, and to record and report each seclusion or restraint under SI 2025/1348. Only its sections on recording and reporting the use of force are statutory guidance; the rest, including the section on seclusion and restraint, is advice.

Do schools have to tell parents when reasonable force is used?

Yes. Section 93A requires every school in England to have a procedure for reporting each significant use of force to each parent as soon as practicable, and the DfE says the report should be in writing and schools should aim to send it the same day. There is no report if the pupil is aged 20 or over; if telling a parent would be likely to result in significant harm to the pupil, the report goes to another parent or, if there is none, to the local authority. Seclusion and restraint without force, such as removing a walking aid, must also be reported to parents under the 2025 seclusion and restraint regulations. In reception and nursery classes, the EYFS requires schools to inform parents of any physical intervention on the same day or as soon as reasonably practicable.

Should a member of staff be suspended after an allegation about the use of force?

Not automatically. The DfE sends allegations of inappropriate force to the Keeping children safe in education procedures, and KCSIE 2026 paragraph 462 says suspension “should not be an automatic response”; paragraph 447 asks the strategy discussion or the initial evaluation with the local authority designated officer to take into account that staff are entitled to use reasonable force.

Does the law on reasonable force apply in Scotland and Wales?

Section 93 applies in England and Wales, so staff in Welsh schools have the same power, but the April 2026 recording and reporting duties apply to schools in England only, and Scotland is outside both. Wales has the Welsh Government's non-statutory Reducing restrictive practices framework (2022), which says restrictive practices “should only ever be used as a last resort”.

Official guidance and your next step

The legal framework is in section 93, section 93A and section 95 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and the seclusion and restraint regulations (SI 2025/1348). The Department for Education's Restrictive interventions, including use of reasonable force, in schools is the guidance, with its sections on recording and reporting the use of force statutory; its annex and KCSIE both refer to the government's 2019 guidance Reducing the need for restraint and restrictive intervention, which KCSIE points to for special settings. Paragraphs 205 to 207, 447 and 462 of Keeping children safe in education 2026, paragraph 3.76 of the EYFS framework for group and school-based providers, Ofsted's state-funded school inspection toolkit and the HSE's EDIS1 complete the picture. Quotations are from those pages as published on 21 October 2026.

This guide covers schools in England, with a note on Wales, and is not legal advice. Your local authority, trust or diocese may publish a model restrictive interventions policy to adapt.

Then do one thing: take the last three force records your school made and check each against the DfE's minimum list and the date the parents were told. Any gap is where your procedure, or your training, needs to change.