Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of using alternatives to restraint in education settings.

The Government recognises that the misuse of restraint or reasonable force can have a significant and long lasting effect on the pupils, staff members and parents involved and that this can potentially hinder the creation of a calm, safe and supportive school environment. The Department has commenced a programme of work which aims to minimise instances of the use of reasonable force, including restraint, in all schools in England.

The first stage of the programme is to conduct extensive research to understand the use of reasonable force, physical restraint, and restrictive practices in schools. This includes a call for evidence, which closed on 11 May 2023.

The evidence gathered will inform revisions to the ‘Use of reasonable force’ guidance (2013) to provide staff with advice on how to minimise the use of restraint, and in instances where it is absolutely necessary and lawful to use restraint, to do so as safely as possible. Recording incidents of reasonable force and reporting incidents to parents will also be made a legal duty for schools.