Section 128 check

The rule: a section 128 direction and what it prevents

A section 128 direction is made by the Secretary of State for Education under section 128 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, which allows a direction that a person “may not take part in the management of an independent educational institution”, or may do so only in specified circumstances or subject to specified conditions. The grounds are set by the Independent Educational Provision in England (Prohibition on Participation in Management) Regulations 2014: a conviction, caution or relevant finding for a relevant offence, or relevant conduct, because of which the Secretary of State considers the person unsuitable to take part in management. The DfE's guidance, Prohibiting unsuitable individuals from managing independent schools, gives examples of relevant conduct ranging from dishonesty and misuse of public funds to failing to report safeguarding concerns or to put safeguarding measures in place in line with statutory guidance.

Academies, free schools and alternative provision academies count as independent schools for this purpose. Paragraph 335 of Keeping children safe in education 2026 (KCSIE), the statutory guidance in force from 1 September 2026, says a person subject to a direction is unable to:

• take up a management position in an independent school, academy, or in a free school as an employee,
• be a trustee of an academy or free school trust; a governor or member of a proprietor body of an independent school, or
• be a governor on any governing body in an independent school, academy or free school that retains or has been delegated any management responsibilities.

Paragraph 339 adds the maintained school effect: a person subject to a direction “is also disqualified from holding or continuing to hold office as a governor of a maintained school”. That disqualification is law, not guidance: paragraph 13(ba) of Schedule 4 to the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 lists being “subject to a direction of the Secretary of State under section 128 of the Education and Skills Act 2008” among the grounds that disqualify a governor, and paragraph 4 of the same schedule extends it to associate members.

Directions are few – the collection listed 37 on 3 October 2026 – and public. The DfE publishes each one in its collection of individuals prohibited from managing or governing schools, listed alphabetically by surname, and a person given a direction has three months to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal; the direction stays in place while the appeal is heard.

Who needs a section 128 check

There is no exhaustive list of management roles. KCSIE paragraph 336 says the DfE's view is that they include, but are not limited to, “headteachers, principals, deputy/assistant headteachers, governors and trustees”, that the job title is not the determining factor, and that whether others, such as teachers with additional responsibilities, take part in management “depends on the facts of the case”. The DfE's section 128 guidance adds chief financial officers and chief operating officers. Applied to each type of school:

1. Academies, free schools and independent schools: staff in management positions. KCSIE paragraph 313 says independent schools, including academies and free schools, “must check that a person taking up a management position as described at paragraphs 335-339 is not subject to a section 128 direction”. The Independent School Standards make it a standard that no member of staff works in contravention of a direction.
2. Academy trustees. The DfE's academy trust governance guide says checks on members and trustees “must include” an enhanced DBS check, confirmation of identity, “a section 128 check”, confirmation of the right to work in the UK and, where relevant, overseas checks.
3. Academy trust members. Paragraph 1.4 of the Academy trust handbook 2026 says trusts “must ensure that their members are not currently subject to a direction made under section 128”, and must not appoint as a member anyone who is.
4. Local governors in a multi-academy trust. A direction stops a person being a governor on any governing body in an academy that “retains or has been delegated any management responsibilities”. Whether a local governing body has such responsibilities depends on the trust's scheme of delegation, so a trust that delegates management responsibilities to its local committees has good reason to check their members as well, since a direction would bar them from serving; KCSIE paragraph 404 already requires an enhanced DBS check on every member of a committee to which the trust delegates.
5. Proprietor bodies of independent schools. KCSIE paragraph 401 says the chair “must also ensure that other members are not subject to a section 128 direction”.
6. Maintained school governors. KCSIE paragraph 393: “Schools should also carry out a section 128 check for school governors, because a person prevented from participating in the management of an independent school by a section 128 direction, is also disqualified from being a governor of a maintained school.” The DfE's maintained schools governance guide says in section 4.3.2 that anyone subject to such a direction “is automatically disqualified from being a governor of a maintained school”. Because the disqualification also covers associate members, checking them is the sensible course too.

Two points cause most of the confusion for governors and school leaders. First, the check is not the same as a DBS check: governance is not regulated activity, so most governors and trustees have an enhanced DBS check without children's barred list information, and that certificate does not show a direction. Second, the duty is different in kind across sectors: for an academy or independent school, a person working in breach of a direction is a failure to meet the Independent School Standards; for a maintained school, a governor subject to a direction is disqualified from holding or continuing to hold office.

How to run a section 128 check

There are two routes, and which one applies depends on whether the person will also be in regulated activity with children.

Through the enhanced DBS check, for people eligible for a barred list check. KCSIE paragraph 338: “A section 128 direction will be disclosed when an enhanced DBS check with children's barred list information is requested, provided that ‘child workforce independent schools’ is specified on the application form as the position applied for.” This is the natural route for a headteacher or deputy head of an academy, and for a governor who also volunteers in regulated activity; the maintained schools governance guide says that for a governor doing regulated activity “you must select ‘child workforce independent schools’ in the enhanced DBS check”. A barred list check made for the wrong workforce, or without that position specified, does not reliably answer the section 128 question.

Through GOV.UK, for everyone else. KCSIE paragraph 338 continues: where a person “is not eligible for a children's barred list check but will be working in a management position in an independent school, a section 128 check should be carried out using GOV.UK”, and paragraph 393 says the same for governors. That GOV.UK page is the published collection of directions. In practice:

1. Confirm the person's identity and every name they have used, including former names, as part of the wider pre-appointment checks: identity, the enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, right to work, and qualifications and references where the post needs them. For a staff post, KCSIE paragraph 313 says all offers of appointment should be conditional until those checks are complete.
2. Search the collection of individuals prohibited from managing or governing schools for each surname, before the person is appointed or takes up the position.
3. If no name matches, record the check (next section).
4. If a name matches, open the published direction and decision and establish, discreetly, whether it is the same person; a direction may also be a restriction rather than a full bar, with conditions to read. If in doubt, ask the DfE before going further, and do not appoint while the question is open.

The DfE's guidance is not entirely consistent about the online route. KCSIE paragraph 340 says schools can use the DfE's Check a teacher's record service for “prohibition, direction, restriction, and children's barred list checks”, and the maintained schools guide mentions the DfE Sign-in organisational portal. But the service's own page, Check a teacher's record, says it will not tell you whether someone “is allowed to manage or govern schools – you need to check the section 128 list”. Until the guidance is aligned, the dependable check for a governor or trustee is the published list, and a Check a teacher's record search, which works only for people with a teacher reference number, is a prohibition-from-teaching check rather than a section 128 check.

The check is made at appointment. Nothing in KCSIE requires it to be repeated, but a direction disqualifies a maintained school governor from continuing in office as well as from appointment, so a board may sensibly repeat the check when a governor or trustee is reappointed or takes on the chair.

What to record, and where

Academies, free schools and independent schools record it on the single central record. KCSIE paragraph 350 says independent schools, including academies and free schools, “must record details of the section 128 checks undertaken for those in management positions”, and paragraph 348 says the record must cover all members of the proprietor body, which for an academy trust “means the members and trustees of the academy trust”. For staff, paragraph 21 of the Schedule to the Independent School Standards requires the register to show whether a check was made to establish whether the person is subject to a section 128 direction, “including the date on which each such check was completed”. A multi-academy trust keeps one record for the trust but must be able to produce each academy's details separately and without delay (paragraph 354).

Maintained schools are not required to put governors' section 128 checks on the single central record; paragraph 393 says schools can if they choose to. Keep them with the governor's other appointment checks, held by the governance professional: the enhanced DBS check the governing body must apply for within 21 days of appointment, if the governor does not already hold a certificate, under regulation 16A of the Constitution Regulations, identity, and any declaration of eligibility the board asks for. Putting them on the single central record as non-statutory information keeps every check in one place for an inspector, as the single central record guide describes.

Either way, a useful entry shows:

• the person's name, and any other names searched;
• the role, and the date they were appointed or took up the position;
• the date of the check, which should be on or before that date;
• the route: the GOV.UK list, or an enhanced DBS check with barred list information for the child workforce independent schools position, with the certificate details recorded as the DBS record-keeping guide explains;
• the result: no direction found, or the outcome of any match;
• who carried out the check, which KCSIE paragraph 352 suggests recording for every check.

When the person leaves, KCSIE paragraph 351 says their details should be removed from the single central record; how long any retained record of the checks is kept is a matter for the school's or trust's retention schedule.

When a check finds a direction, or a concern arises later

A maintained school cannot appoint a person subject to a direction as a governor, and a serving governor who becomes subject to one is disqualified from continuing in office; the governing body should take advice from the local authority or diocese on the steps that follow. An academy trust or independent school must not let the person take up, or continue in, a management role covered by the direction: the DfE's guidance says a proprietor will be in breach of the Independent School Standards if a member of staff, or the proprietor, works contrary to a direction, and the Secretary of State can require an action plan or take enforcement action. Where the direction is a restriction rather than a bar, read its conditions against the role before deciding anything.

The flow also runs the other way. A governing body or proprietor that has concerns about someone's suitability to manage a school can refer them to the DfE, which lists “referral from a proprietor or governing body of a school” among the ways it learns of cases; its guidance points to the DfE contact form, choosing the option for disclosure in the public interest. A referral is not a substitute for the school's own safeguarding or allegations procedures, which run first where a child may be at risk.

A person given a direction can apply for it to be varied or revoked, for example when a conviction becomes spent or new evidence emerges, and can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Until either succeeds, the direction stands, and the published list is the authority a school should rely on.

The appointment confirmed in a message

Governance appointments are often made in a hurry and confirmed informally. The chair of a local governing body messages the trust's governance team on a Sunday to say a parent has agreed to join and can they start at Tuesday's meeting. The governance professional replies from her phone that the checks are “all fine, she's good to go”. A trustee co-opted to fill a gap before the audit committee is told by the chair, in a direct message, that the paperwork can follow. Weeks later the single central record shows a check date after the first meeting the new trustee attended, or no check at all, and the only evidence of who looked at what, and when, is a thread on two personal phones.

That thread is a record of a safer recruitment decision. KCSIE asks schools and trusts to show that the check was made before a person took up a management role, and an inspector testing the single central record, or the DfE looking into a governance concern, will ask who confirmed it. If the answer is a message from someone who has since left the trust, it cannot be produced.

The fix is not to stop the clerk and the chair arranging appointments by message; that is how a board fills a vacancy at short notice. It is to have those exchanges somewhere the school or trust holds them, and to end each one with the line that goes on the record. ComplyChat provides a channel for the board and its governance professional in which everyone added is told it is on the record and can object or leave, and a mobile number verified by SMS is an identity, which matters because governors and trustees rarely have a school account. On paid plans the lasting record files into the school's or trust's own Microsoft 365 once the tenant is connected, under its own retention rules. It does not run section 128, DBS or identity checks, and it is not a single central record.

A question for the next board meeting: for every governor or trustee appointed this year, can the board show the date of the section 128 check, who made it, and that it came before their first vote?

Questions people ask

Do school governors need a section 128 check?

Yes. Academy trustees must have one, and KCSIE 2026 says maintained schools should carry out a section 128 check for governors, because a person subject to a section 128 direction is disqualified from being a maintained school governor under Schedule 4 to the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012. Local governors in a multi-academy trust are covered where their governing body has been delegated management responsibilities.

How do I do a section 128 check online?

Search the DfE's published collection of individuals prohibited from managing or governing schools on GOV.UK for the person's surname and any former surnames, which is the route KCSIE 2026 gives for anyone not eligible for a children's barred list check. For people who are eligible, an enhanced DBS check with barred list information discloses a direction if “child workforce independent schools” is specified as the position applied for.

Is a section 128 check the same as a DBS check?

No. A section 128 check looks for a direction from the Secretary of State barring someone from managing schools; a DBS check looks at criminal records and, at enhanced level with barred list information, the children's barred list. Most governors and trustees get an enhanced DBS check without barred list information, which does not show a section 128 direction, so the separate check is needed.

Does a section 128 check have to go on the single central record?

For academies, free schools and independent schools, yes: KCSIE 2026 says they must record details of the section 128 checks for those in management positions, and the record covers the trust's members and trustees. For maintained school governors, KCSIE says there is no requirement to record the check on the single central record, though schools can choose to.

What can lead to a section 128 direction?

A direction can follow a conviction, caution or relevant finding for an offence relevant to managing a school, or relevant conduct, where the Secretary of State considers the person unsuitable as a result. The DfE's guidance gives examples including dishonesty, misuse of public funds, serious, deliberate or repeated breaches of the Academies Financial Handbook, now the Academy trust handbook, and failing to report safeguarding concerns or to follow statutory safeguarding guidance.

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are paragraphs 313, 335 to 341, 347 to 354 and 391 to 404 of Keeping children safe in education 2026; the DfE's guidance on barring unsuitable individuals from managing independent schools (November 2025); section 4.3 of the maintained schools governance guide and section 4.6 of the academy trust governance guide, which replaced the withdrawn Governance Handbook; and the Academy trust handbook 2026, in effect from 1 October 2026. KCSIE paragraph numbers change most years; check the current edition before citing one.

This guide is a summary of published law and guidance for England, not legal advice. If a check produces a possible match, or a serving governor or trustee may be subject to a direction, take advice from your local authority, diocese or trust's governance and legal team before acting.

Then do one thing: ask the governance professional to list every governor, trustee and member with the date of their section 128 check beside their appointment date, and put any blank or later date on the next agenda.