Department for Education updates Independent School Standards guidance

The Department for Education (DfE) published updated non‑statutory guidance on the Independent School Standards (ISS) in April 2026. While the underlying Standards themselves remain unchanged, the revised guidance contains a small number of substantive updates which will be taken into account by inspectors when assessing compliance.

The guidance is intended to support proprietors, governing bodies and school leaders in understanding how the ISS should be met in practice. Inspectors and the Department for England have confirmed that they will continue to have regard to this guidance when reporting on compliance and when making regulatory or enforcement decisions.

At a high level, the April 2026 update identifies six key areas where the Department considers additional clarification or explanation is required. In many cases, this reflects alignment with recently updated statutory or non‑statutory guidance rather than a change in expectations.

Key areas of update

The six areas highlighted by the DfE are:

Fundamental British Values

Expanded cross‑referencing to existing non‑statutory guidance, together with additional examples of how schools may actively promote fundamental British values through curriculum, ethos and day‑to‑day practice.

Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)

Updates reflecting the current statutory requirements under Standard 2A and the revised RSHE statutory guidance, including clarity on consultation, publication of policies and parental withdrawal rights. See our previous article on the RSHE guidance.

Mobile phones in schools

New guidance aligning with the DfE's updated advice that schools should be mobile phone‑free environments by default, and that mobile phone policies may be scrutinised as part of behaviour, safeguarding and wellbeing arrangements.

Attendance

Refreshed expectations reflecting updated statutory guidance on attendance, with particular emphasis on accurate registers, relevant referrals to local authorities, early intervention and the safeguarding implications of persistent or unexplained absence.

Restrictive interventions (including reasonable force and seclusion)

New commentary reflecting the introduction of Standards 16A and 32A, and the Schools (Recording and Reporting of Seclusion and Restraint) Regulations 2025. The guidance makes clear inspectors will expect robust procedures for recording incidents and notifying parents promptly, subject to the limited exceptions in the Regulations.

Data protection complaints

New guidance in Part 7 (complaints) addressing how schools should approach complaints from individuals about data protection issues – eg if they are unhappy with the response received to a subject access request, or about anything related to the processing of their personal data.

This reflects the fact that from June 2026 there is a statutory obligation on data controllers to 'facilitate' data protection complaints, meaning that they must give individuals a way to make such complaints, acknowledge them within 30 days, investigate and communicate outcomes without undue delay.

ICO guidance confirms that organisations are not required to operate a separate, standalone data protection complaints process, provided their existing procedures are adapted to meet these requirements. The DfE guidance expressly endorses this approach and confirms that there is no incompatibility between these new data protection obligations and the parental complaints requirements under Part 7 of the ISS.

However, schools must ensure that their complaints procedures do not create conflict between the two regimes. In practice, where a complaint from a parent is purely about data protection, it may be most practical to deal with it in line with the school’s data protection complaints handling process, in the same way as a complaint from a non-parent data subject. This does not prevent a parent from also pursuing a complaint via the statutory parental complaints procedure, and schools should avoid any suggestion that parents are being discouraged from doing so.

As ever, where a complaint straddles regulatory, safeguarding and data protection issues, early advice is likely to be helpful.

Next steps for schools

Although the updated guidance does not require wholesale change, schools should consider:

• reviewing policies in the six highlighted areas to ensure they reflect the updated guidance;
• ensuring that they are able to meet the specific statutory requirements of dealing with data protection complaints; and
• ensuring staff understand how multi‑issue complaints (for example safeguarding, behaviour and data protection) should be managed in practice.

Many thanks to the trainee Jessica Harker for their help in writing this article.

This publication is a general summary of the law. It should not replace legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances.

© Farrer & Co LLP, May 2026