Restraint and seclusion reporting: what the 2026 regulations mean in daily school life
Under the Seclusion and Restraint Regulations 2025, every incident needs a record and prompt explanation to parents, even where plans exist. Seven steps run from making the situation safe to reviewing the plan.
Who should be trained to use reasonable force in schools?
Rather than training everyone identically or too few people, schools should map where incidents happen and give staff training matched to their role, starting with awareness for all.
From behaviour policy to practice: making the guidance work in corridors and classrooms
A five-step process for turning behaviour policy into corridor practice, naming predictable flashpoints, setting a first-minute standard and clarifying thresholds for physical intervention. Staff need to rehearse decisions in conditions resembling the job.
Governors and intervention data: the questions boards should be asking
Eight questions governors should ask of intervention data, covering the volume of force, restraint or seclusion, where and when incidents happen, which pupil groups appear and whether the same pupils and staff recur.
Seclusion is not a sanction: what the 2026 guidance means for safe spaces
The 2026 guidance treats seclusion as a safety measure only, never punishment, and the post separates voluntary regulation space, directed time away and seclusion, urging schools to define each clearly in policy.
Restrictive intervention policy is now a behaviour-culture issue
The April 2026 guidance puts restrictive intervention inside behaviour culture, not a policy folder. It allows force where safety is at stake but expects schools to minimise it through prevention and early de-escalation.
SEND, reasonable adjustments and positive handling: prevention before crisis
Drawing on 2026 DfE guidance and the SCARF model, the post argues that for pupils with SEND, prevention is the most important form of positive handling, and sets out a six-part planning approach.
Recording reasonable force: what good incident notes need to prove
A good record shows the decision-making, not just that force happened. It should cover context, risk, alternatives tried, what staff did, welfare, aftercare and learning, in observable detail rather than labels.
Necessary, proportionate, shortest time: the decision test school staff need to practise
Reasonable force must be necessary, proportionate and brief, and the post turns that phrase into four questions staff can rehearse, drawing on Gary Klein’s work on decisions made under pressure.
Rethinking ADHD
Dr Sanne te Meerman’s work on ADHD is summarised, covering the DSM-5 definition, the sharp rise in UK diagnoses between 2000 and 2018, and why teachers should question the label as a catch-all explanation.