July 2026 exclusions guidance for schools

The Department for Education (DfE) has issued revised statutory guidance on suspensions and permanent exclusions due to come into force in July 2026.

The overall structure of the guidance remains broadly consistent with the August 2024 edition. However, the updated version introduces a number of important changes which schools, academy trusts, and local authorities will need to understand before its implementation.

While many of the changes are technical, they reflect a clear direction of travel. The Department for Education is placing greater emphasis on consistency, safeguarding, equality duties and procedural fairness across the exclusions framework.

Education Regulations 2026

One of the most significant changes is the incorporation of the Education (Educational Provision for Improving Behaviour) (Application to Academies and Pupil Referral Units and Minor Amendments) Regulations 2026.

These regulations extend the statutory regime for providing full-time education to excluded pupils to academies and pupil referral units. This brings those settings into closer alignment with the maintained school framework.

In practical terms, the legal duties around day six provision will now apply more consistently across the sector. Schools, trusts and PRUs should review their current arrangements to ensure they can arrange suitable full-time education within the required timescales when they exclude a pupil.

Safeguarding and keeping pupils apart

The July 2026 guidance also provides clearer recognition that exclusion-related decisions may sometimes be linked to safeguarding considerations.

Previous guidance focused primarily on behaviour management. The new guidance makes clear that, in some cases, keeping pupils apart may be necessary to protect the welfare of the pupil concerned, or the welfare of others. Although schools should not use exclusion as a default safeguarding response, schools will need to show that they have considered relevant decisions through both a behaviour lens and a safeguarding lens.

Schools should properly record and risk assess exclusion decisions and align them with wider safeguarding obligations, including the approach set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education.

Remote access and review meetings

The 2024 guidance introduced the ability for governing board meetings and independent review panels to take place by remote access where requested by parents.

The July 2026 guidance keeps that flexibility but clarifies how schools, governing boards and panels should offer, consider and record remote access.

The underlying legal test has not changed. However, the updated guidance places greater emphasis on accessibility and procedural fairness. Schools and panels should be able to demonstrate that they have properly considered parental requests, and that they have clearly recorded any decision about the format of a meeting.

Exclusions as part of the wider behaviour framework

The updated guidance also strengthens the link between exclusions and the wider behaviour framework.

The guidance makes clear that exclusions should sit within a graduated response and should generally be considered where strategies and interventions in the wider behaviour guidance have not succeeded, or where the seriousness of an incident requires immediate action. Schools and trusts should therefore support exclusion decisions with clear evidence of previous intervention, where appropriate, and keep behaviour policies consistent with the revised statutory guidance.

Equality Act 2010 and discrimination risks

The July 2026 guidance places greater prominence on duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the Children and Families Act 2014.

Although these duties are not new, the updated guidance integrates them more closely with the exclusion decision-making process. This is particularly relevant where pupils have special educational needs, disabilities or other protected characteristics.

The guidance also highlights the need to avoid practices which may disproportionately increase the risk of exclusion for pupils with protected characteristics. This means that schools should keep exclusion data under regular review, and ensure that decision-makers understand the equality implications of exclusion decisions.

Cancelled exclusions and reintegration

The treatment of cancelled exclusions remains largely unchanged. However, the July 2026 guidance provides clearer expectations about the steps that must follow when an exclusion is cancelled. This includes offering parents a meeting and reintegrating the pupil without delay.

The guidance also reiterates that any days a pupil spends out of school before the school cancels an exclusion still count towards the 45-school-day annual limit.

Schools should therefore put reliable systems in place to record and monitor cumulative exclusion days, including cases where another school previously excluded a pupil.

Notification, social workers and virtual school heads

The July 2026 guidance also includes a number of clarifications intended to support more consistent practice across governing boards, independent review panels, and local authorities.

These include clearer expectations around notification duties, the involvement of social workers and virtual school heads, as well as the provision of work during the first five school days of a suspension, or permanent exclusion.

Schools should ensure that the staff responsible for exclusions understand when they must make notifications, whom they must inform, and which records they should keep.

Conclusion

Taken together, the July 2026 guidance represents an incremental but important evolution of the exclusions framework. It strengthens the alignment between behaviour, safeguarding and statutory process; extends legal duties to academies and PRUs; and provides clearer expectations around consistency, fairness and procedural rigour.

Schools and trusts should update their policies, training, and operational systems before implementation to reflect these changes.

For further advice or support on how the July 2026 exclusions guidance may affect your school, trust or local authority, please contact Thomas Emmett at thomas.emmett@geldards.com.