Dear editor,
Since 1 April 2026, schools in England have had statutory responsibilities to record significant incidents involving the use of force and report them to parents, subject to safeguarding exceptions. Separately, schools must notify the local authority about suspensions and permanent exclusions.
But what happens between those two processes?
There is no equivalent general automatic requirement for the local authority to receive information about a restrictive intervention when it forms part of an incident followed by exclusion.
The parent may therefore be told about the restrictive intervention, and the local authority may receive information relating to the exclusion – but who is making sure those two parts of the same incident are seen together?
For the child, it was one experience.
I started a UK Parliament petition after my son’s experience at school, asking for schools automatically to report details of a restrictive intervention to the relevant local authority when a pupil is suspended or permanently excluded following that intervention.
This isn’t about arguing that every use of restrictive intervention or every exclusion is wrong, and it isn’t about blaming school staff. For me, it is a question of safeguarding, transparency and whether the body with wider oversight can see the complete sequence surrounding an exclusion.
I am particularly concerned about children with SEND, who may have been distressed or unable to explain clearly what happened themselves.
Kerry Langdon
Norfolk
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