The Secretary of State enacted these Regulations, defining seclusion and restraint, imposing recording and parental notification duties on local authority maintained schools, extending similar duties to independent and non-maintained special schools via amendments, providing safeguarding exceptions for non-disclosure, and revoking the preceding 2025 regulations.

These Regulations, made under the Education Act 1996 and Education and Skills Act 2008, establish mandatory duties for schools in England regarding the recording and reporting of incidents where a member of staff secludes, restrains, or immobilizes a pupil outside of a disciplinary penalty; specifically, they require maintained schools to record such incidents and provide copies to parents, allowing for records to be withheld if disclosure risks the pupil's significant harm, while also amending standards for independent and non-maintained special schools to introduce equivalent requirements and simultaneously revoking a previous version of these regulations issued in error.

The Regulations mandated the creation of procedures for recording pupil seclusion, restraint, and immobilization incidents in schools across England and required the reporting of these incidents to parents unless safeguarding concerns existed, while also amending independent and non-maintained special school standards.

These Regulations establish comprehensive, mandatory procedures for schools in England, effective from 1st April 2026, requiring school staff to keep written records of every incident where a pupil is secluded, restrained, or immobilized, and mandating that these records (with specified safeguarding exceptions) are supplied to the pupil's parents as soon as practicable; the rules also amend the standards for independent and non-maintained special schools to enforce equivalent recording and reporting duties concerning seclusion, restraint, and use of force incidents.