Locked away all day: more secondaries are putting pupils' phones in pouches
What happened
Secondary schools in England are increasingly locking pupils' phones away for the school day, and the trend is accelerating. The reason is a change in the law. From 29 June 2026, government guidance on mobile phones in schools was given legal force under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. Schools have been expected to follow it since 1 September 2026. State-funded schools in England now have a legal duty to have regard to guidance stating that all schools should be mobile phone-free environments by default. Schools can meet that in different ways. Some use fixed lockers. Some collect phones at the start of the day. A growing number use lockable pouches. A pouch lets a pupil keep their own phone with them, but they cannot get into it. Staff unlock the pouches at the end of the day, so pupils have their phones again for the journey home. From September 2026, Ofsted also considers how well a school's policy is working when it inspects.
Why this matters
For parents, the most common worry is contact. If your child cannot reach their phone, how do you reach them? The practical answer is the one that applied for decades: through the school office. Schools are required to be contactable, and emergencies go through them. The pouch approach is partly designed around this concern. The phone stays on the child, which helps with the journey to and from school, but is inaccessible during the day. The second issue is cost, and it is not small. Tom Middlehurst, deputy director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, has said members believe costs could run between £20,000 and £40,000 per school. Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, put it another way. In a school of 1,000 pupils, a £20 pouch each comes to £20,000. There is also a question nobody has fully answered: who pays if a phone is lost or damaged. School insurance is unlikely to cover a few hundred high-value handsets, and parents' home insurance may not either.
What the evidence actually says
Does locking phones away work? The honest answer is that the evidence is early but pointing in a reasonable direction. A pilot study by researchers at King's College London, published in August 2026, found that lockable pouches did reduce smartphone use in schools. That is a useful finding, though a pilot is designed to test whether something is feasible rather than to prove long-term benefit. On how widespread this is, Teacher Tapp polling found that as of September 2025, 18% of schools used pouches or collected phones from pupils. That was double the proportion doing so in February 2024, and it was before the law changed. On the scale of the national rollout, BlueLight Commercial has been awarded an open framework worth an estimated £60 million over eight years to supply pouches, unlocking bases and support services. What the evidence does not yet show is the thing parents most want to know: whether phone-free schools improve exam results or pupil wellbeing over years rather than weeks. Those studies take time, and they have not been done at scale in England yet. So the fair summary is that reducing phone use in school clearly works at reducing phone use in school. Whether that translates into better outcomes is still being established.
Practical advice
If your child's school is introducing pouches or lockers, here is what is worth doing. **Read the policy properly.** Schools should set out how pupils are contacted in an emergency, what happens if a pouch is damaged, and how exemptions work. **Ask about medical exemptions early.** Pupils who use a phone to manage a health condition, such as a continuous glucose monitor for type 1 diabetes, will usually need an agreed arrangement. Do not leave this until the first day. **Check the insurance question.** Ask the school directly what happens if a phone goes missing. Then check your own home contents policy for cover away from home. **Save the school office number.** Put it in your own phone and make sure your child knows the school can always reach you. **Talk to your child about the reasoning.** Rules explained tend to land better than rules imposed. Most young people have their own views on phones and are worth listening to. **Raise concerns through governors if needed.** Every school has a governing body, and cost or fairness concerns are legitimate things to put to them.
What to know
Government guidance that schools in England should be mobile phone-free by default became statutory under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, with schools expected to comply from 1 September 2026. More secondaries are using lockable pouches, which keep the phone with the pupil but out of reach during the day. Costs are significant. School leaders estimate £20,000 to £40,000 per school, and a national supply framework has been valued at an estimated £60 million over eight years. A King's College London pilot found pouches did reduce phone use. Longer-term effects on results and wellbeing have not yet been established. Sources: Tes, '£60m framework to supply phone pouches to schools', 2026, https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/ps60-million-framework-drive-supply-phone-pouches-schools; King's College London, 'Pilot study finds lockable pouches help reduce smartphone use in schools', August 2026, https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/pilot-study-finds-lockable-pouches-help-reduce-smartphone-use-in-schools; Browne Jacobson, 'KCSiE 2026: Statutory mobile phone guidance for schools', 2026, https://www.brownejacobson.com/insights/kcsie-2026/mobile-phones-in-schools. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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