Guide · Updated 5 October 2026
Restraint records: what the 2026 guidance requires, and what governors should check
Since 1 April 2026, schools in England must record every significant use of reasonable force or other restrictive intervention and tell parents no later than the same day, and governors should regularly review the data for disproportionality, including by SEN and protected characteristics. Recording is usually the easy part; analysis is where the gaps are.
By Barry Reed, former founding headteacher of an SEMH and autism special school. Written from the guidance in force on 5 October 2026; check the current version on gov.uk before relying on it.
What changed in April 2026?
The Department for Education's guidance on the use of reasonable force and other restrictive interventions came into effect on 1 April 2026, replacing the 2013 advice. Its section on recording and reporting significant incidents is statutory; the rest is guidance schools are expected to follow. It expects every significant incident to be recorded as soon as practicable, parents to be informed, and pupils and staff to be offered a debrief. It defines seclusion, and it says governing bodies should regularly review and interrogate restraint data for trends and disproportionality. The duties fall on every school, not only special schools.
What does a good record contain?
A good record answers five questions an outsider would ask: what happened before, what the adult did and for how long, why it was necessary and proportionate, what the pupil and parent were told, and what changed afterwards. It uses one form across the school, it is completed the same day, and it links to the pupil's behaviour support plan where one exists. Records kept on several different forms are the most common finding, and the easiest to fix.
What should governors see each term?
A short data report, not a pile of forms: the number of incidents, the pupils involved by SEND status, year group and sex, the staff involved, the time of day and place, how many parents were told and when, how many debriefs happened, and what leaders changed in response. The point is to spot the pattern that is hard to see from inside: the same three pupils, the same corridor, the same lesson change. Governors are not there to judge whether a hold was lawful; they are there to show they looked.
How does this connect to suspensions and part time timetables?
The same pupils tend to appear in all three sets of records. A pupil restrained in October is often suspended in November and on a part time timetable by January. Reading the three together is how a school finds out whether its approach is working for the pupils whose needs show up as behaviour, which is the question behind every one of these records.
Checklist
Ten minutes with your records.
Questions a head or a chair can ask this week. No answer is a finding in itself.
- Is there one incident form, used by everyone, completed the same day?
- Does every significant incident name the de escalation tried first?
- Were parents told on the day, and is that recorded?
- Were the pupil and the staff member debriefed, and is that recorded?
- Is seclusion defined in your policy, and is any use recorded as such?
- Does the policy reflect the 2026 guidance rather than the 2013 advice?
- Has anyone analysed incidents by SEND, year group and sex this year?
- Do the pupils with the most incidents have current behaviour support plans?
- What did governors receive last term, and what did they ask?
- When did governors last ask a question about the data, and what was it?
Questions
Questions schools ask.
Do governors have to see individual restraint records?
The guidance focuses governors on data and patterns, with names removed. Individual records are for the school's leaders, and are shared outside the school only where safeguarding or the law requires.
Is a mainstream school expected to have restraint training?
The guidance expects staff who are likely to use force to be adequately trained. It names no provider or standard. Many schools choose training certified against the Restraint Reduction Network standards.
What is the difference between this and an audit?
An audit checks every record against every requirement. A governance check samples records chosen with the school, reads them against the guidance, and tells leaders what is missing and what governors should see. It gives no opinion on whether any individual use of force was lawful.
If you want a second pair of eyes
Governance Check
Redewell offers an independent one to one and a half day check of your restraint and suspension records, with a cross check of the part time timetable register, written for the head and the chair. One published rate, £700 a day, no VAT. How it works
Let's talk
Twenty minutes is usually enough to know whether a review would help.
If it would not, I will say so, and point you to free support instead.
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