Mobile phones to be banned in schools in England under government plans

The government will seek to legalize the ban on phones in schools by amending the Welfare of Children and Schools Act to the House of Lords.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesman said the change would make existing guidance on mobile phone bans in schools legal.

A spokesperson for the DfE said: “We have consistently made clear that mobile phones have no place in schools and the majority have already banned them.

“This change makes existing guidance legal, giving legal force to what schools are already doing in practice.

“This builds on steps we have taken to strengthen enforcement, with Ofsted considering schools’ mobile phone policies as part of inspection from this month.

“We will always put children’s interests first, including this bill, which is considered the largest piece of child protection legislation in decades, with critical measures such as legislation to prevent profiteering in children’s social care and a new unique identifier to prevent children from falling out of favour.”

MPs will vote on the change of Government on Wednesday.

Skills Minister Baroness Smith of Malvern told the Lords: “We have listened to concerns and listened to Parliament about how we have supported headteachers in delivering this policy.”

On Monday evening, colleagues voted on their mobile phones for a Conservative amendment to the Bill.

They voted 276 to 169, a majority of 107, to ban students from having smartphones during the school day.

Shadow education secretary Baroness Barran’s proposal includes potential regulation for sixth forms, medical devices and some boarding school settings, and faces further scrutiny in the House of Commons, which has previously rejected it.

The Education Secretary has previously written to headteachers in England to emphasize that schools should be phone-free throughout the school day. However, guidance on mobile phones is not legal.

School principals’ union NAHT announced its support for making the ban legal.

General Secretary Paul Whiteman said: “The legal guidance will provide school leaders with the clarity they need to implement the ban and remove any uncertainty or differences between how schools approach smartphone policies.

“Schools will only then need to decide how to implement and enforce the ban within their own school communities and the Government must provide whatever support they need to do this effectively.

“Some schools will need time to communicate with parents and students about implementing a full ban, which does not currently exist.”

Teachers’ union NASUWT has previously said it supports a legal school phone ban.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the legal ban “hasn’t changed much” as most schools already have bans in place.

“It would be really helpful if the government provides funds to schools for the safe and secure storage of mobile phones, such as storage lockers or ziplock bags,” he added.

“We would also like to see much tougher regulatory measures introduced to tackle the harm caused by the overuse of social media and smartphones, which often take place outside school hours and have a profound and damaging impact on many young people.”

A Government source said: “Repeated attempts by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to scrap some of the most far-reaching child protection laws are a deeply disgusting and dismal failure for some of the most vulnerable children in our country.

“After more than a decade in which the children’s social care and child protection system was left to rot by these parties in power and the horrific cases of child abuse by the likes of Arthur Labinjo Hughes, Star Hobson and Sara Sharif, this Government moved swiftly to fix the broken situation but was blocked at every turn by the opposition parties.

“It is an absolute affront to democracy that measures in this legislation, which include direct manifesto commitments such as the introduction of free breakfast clubs and a limit on branded school uniforms, saving families hundreds of pounds, are being blocked by their unelected Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers.”

Lady Barran told the Lords: “Current guidance, which the Government has published and now proposes to put on a statutory basis, still allows schools to have a so-called ‘not seen, not heard’ policy.”

He added: “There is so much evidence that having a smartphone in one’s bag or pocket is distracting that the temptation to turn it on when going to the toilet, out of sight, on the playground is almost overwhelming. In fact, it happens to adults too.”

“Therefore, this being the case, placing defective guidance on a legal basis will not achieve any results.”