New School Suspension and Exclusion Guidance 2026: What Schools Need to Know

The Department for Education has published a new edition of its statutory guidance, Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement. It comes into force on 26 July 2026 and replaces the 2024 version. It applies to maintained schools, academies, free schools, AP academies and pupil referral units in England.

Most of the underlying framework is unchanged. The updates are targeted, and the most significant of them concern off-site direction, which is directly relevant to how schools use alternative provision to support behaviour and to prevent exclusion. Here is what has changed, what has stayed the same, and where part-time provision can help.

What's Changed in the 2026 Exclusion Guidance

The 2026 edition reflects new regulations, the Education (Educational Provision for Improving Behaviour) (Application to Academies and Pupil Referral Units and Minor Amendments) Regulations 2026. In practice, the main effects are:

• Off-site direction rules now apply to academies and AP academies with the same procedural requirements that maintained schools already follow.

• From 26 July 2026, the management committees of pupil referral units can also make off-site directions, subject to the same requirements.

• There is further clarity on the existing exclusion framework and on keeping pupils apart for safeguarding purposes.

• There are minor clarifications to the statutory review process to improve consistency between governing boards, Independent Review Panels and parents.

  
  

None of this rewrites the system, but for academies and AP academies in particular, the tightening of off-site direction procedure is a meaningful change to get right.

New Off-Site Direction Requirements Explained

Off-site direction is when a pupil is required to attend another setting temporarily to improve their behaviour. The guidance is explicit that it can only be used to improve future behaviour, not as a punishment for past misconduct, and only where in-school interventions or outreach have not worked or are not appropriate. That is an important distinction. Off-site direction is a forward-looking, supportive measure, not a sanction.

Under the updated rules, the governing board must notify parents in writing, and the local authority where the pupil has an EHC plan, about the placement as soon as practicable and no later than two school days before it starts. That notice must include the address, who the pupil reports to, the number of days, and the reasons and objectives. The placement must then be kept under review, with review meetings at appropriate intervals, at least six days' written notice of each meeting, and the decision on whether to continue confirmed in writing within six days of the meeting. In short, the process is designed to keep placements transparent, time-limited and genuinely reviewed rather than left to run.

Transitional Arrangements for Existing Placements

For placements that an academy or AP academy put in place before 26 July 2026 and that continue beyond that date, written notice must be provided on or after 26 July, and the first review meeting must be held as soon as reasonably practicable after 1 August 2026. If your school has directed pupils off-site under existing arrangements, this is the practical detail to check before the new term.

Suspension and Exclusion Rules That Remain in Place

A pupil can be suspended for up to a maximum of 45 school days in a single academic year. Permanent exclusion should be used only as a last resort, in response to a serious breach or persistent breaches of the behaviour policy, and where allowing the pupil to remain would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others. Suitable full-time alternative provision must begin no later than the sixth school day of a suspension longer than five days, or following a permanent exclusion.

The guidance continues to take a firm line against off-rolling, and against using part-time timetables to manage behaviour. It places real emphasis on reintegration, expecting schools to design a strategy that offers a fresh start, helps a child understand the effect of their behaviour, rebuilds a sense of belonging, and is reviewed and adapted with the child and their parents. It also sets out the importance of information sharing between settings, and of proper attention to children with special educational needs, children with a social worker, and looked-after children, whose circumstances must be considered carefully whenever exclusion is a risk.

The Preventative Role of Good Alternative Provision

One of the most striking parts of the guidance, for anyone working in this field, is how positively it frames the very best alternative provision. It describes high-quality AP as important in managing behaviour and providing alternatives to exclusion, including outreach support for pupils in mainstream schools and short-term places for pupils who need a time-limited intervention away from their mainstream school. The message is that good AP is not the end of the road, it is part of the toolkit that helps schools avoid exclusion in the first place.

How Part-Time Alternative Provision Can Help

The guidance makes a point that is central to what we do: off-site direction can be full-time, or it can be a combination of part-time support in alternative provision alongside continued mainstream education. That combination model is exactly where a part-time, unregistered alternative provision fits.

Because our provision is part-time, a child can attend uReach for focused, intensive support for part of the week while remaining on roll and continuing their education at their home school. They keep their place, their relationships and their routine in mainstream, and they receive targeted help at the same time. For primary-aged children with complex needs, that continuity matters enormously. It avoids the disruption of full removal from mainstream, it keeps the child connected to their community, and it sits comfortably with a guidance framework that wants placements to be purposeful, time-limited, properly reviewed, and always oriented towards a successful return.

It is worth adding that the part-time nature of provision like ours is linked to its unregistered status, and settings should always check their own position against current DfE registration guidance. But for a school considering how to support a child at risk of suspension or exclusion, the practical value is straightforward. Part-time AP offers a way to intervene early and meaningfully without removing a child from mainstream altogether, which is precisely the kind of preventative, reintegration-focused approach the guidance encourages.

At uReach, structured targets, regular review and planned reintegration are already built into how we run placements, so the direction of this guidance is one we welcome.

If you would like to talk through how these changes affect the way you use alternative provision, or how part-time support could help a particular child, we are happy to help.

Find Out More & Reach Out To Us Via Our Website: www.u-reach-ap.co.uk

Source: Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement (DfE statutory guidance, July 2026 edition, in force from 26 July 2026).