Guidance

Boarding schools: national minimum standards

The national minimum standards that boarding schools must meet to safeguard and protect the children in their care.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 1 November 2012
• Last updated: 18 May 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 18 May 2026

     Updated 'National minimum standards for boarding schools', details in document history.

  2. 5 September 2022

     Removed 'National minimum standards for boarding schools: in force until 5 September 2022' and replaced with current 'National minimum standards for boarding schools'.

  3. 1 September 2022

     Updated 'National minimum standards for boarding schools: in force from 5 September 2022' to add footnote 44 explaining that standard 20.10 (regarding boarders accessing staff residential accommodation) does not apply to public or shared use spaces. If such a space does exist within staff accommodation, the school should clearly communicate this in relevant policies and have a clear policy on safely managing the use of such spaces. New hyperlinks for QEG and AEGIS also added.

  4. 20 May 2022

     Added 'National minimum standards for boarding schools: in force from 5 September 2022'.

  5. 24 March 2015

     Updated document as a result of Ofsted inspections against the standards, and revisions to the independent school standards.

  6. 1 November 2012

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

National minimum standards for boarding schools

PDF, 723 KB, 33 pages

Details

This guidance is for:

• school leaders
• school staff

It applies to:

• boarding schools maintained by the local authority
• independent boarding schools

It contains a statement of national minimum standards for boarding schools that provide accommodation for children.

National minimum standards for residential special schools are also available.