Restrictive mobile phone policies in schools do not improve student mental wellbeing, a new study has revealed.
The research also revealed that enforcing rules around mobile phones in schools consumes more than 100 hours of staff time per week.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham found no discernible difference in measures such as worry, sadness, or optimism among Year 8 and Year 10 pupils, regardless of whether their secondary schools enforced strict or lenient mobile phone rules.
This revelation comes as the government recently updated its guidance, advocating against phone use in schools, and announced plans for a consultation on an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s.
The study encompassed 20 secondary schools, carefully matched by characteristics, with 13 operating restrictive policies and seven adopting more permissive approaches.
Permissive schools typically allowed phone use during break times, whereas restrictive institutions prohibited mobile phones throughout the entire school day or on school grounds.
Schools with more restrictive rules reported they spent an average of 102 hours a week implementing them and applying behaviour sanctions if they were violated.
However, schools with more permissive rules still reported spending an average of 108 hours on managing phone use, with more time spent on things like administering policies and recording incidents related to phones.
Researchers said the findings show new ways to manage phones in schools are needed.
University of Birmingham’s Professor Victoria Goodyear, chief investigator of the Smart Schools Study, said: “School phone policies, whether permissive or restrictive, are a huge drain on a school to enforce.
“The high proportions of teacher time spent managing phone use or phone related behaviours during the school day is potentially being diverted away from other types of wellbeing promoting activities, such as pastoral support or extra-curricular activities. We therefore need new ways of approaching adolescent smartphone use in schools.”
Researchers also said restrictive phone policies save schools some money through the lower time spent managing them – with restrictive rules estimated to cost on average £94 per pupil a year less than laxer rules.
Senior study author and head of the Health Economics Unit at the University of Birmingham Professor Hareth Al-Janabi said: “While there is a small difference in the resources needed to implement a restrictive policy, we are under no illusion that policing phone use is a big strain for schools and that a stricter policy is no silver bullet.”
Data collection for the study took place between 2022 and 2023, before the former Tory government brought in non-statutory guidance banning phones from schools
According to data from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Dsit), 99.9 per cent of primary schools and 90 per cent of secondary schools have mobile phone policies in place.
However, 58 per cent of secondary school pupils reported mobile phones being used without permission in at least some lessons, rising to 65 per cent for key stage four pupils.
Schools watchdog Ofsted will be directed to examine schools’ mobile phone policies and how effectively they are implemented during inspections, which has been criticised by teaching unions.
Some campaigners are calling for a total statutory ban on bringing phones to schools, while others have championed phones being stored in lockable pouches when pupils arrive.
On Monday, teaching union NASUWT backed a complete statutory ban on phones in schools.
Professor Goodyear told the Press Association: “There is a lack of evidence in this space, and as researchers we are inclined to say that all new policies need to be supported by a robust evaluation and evidence informing that.”
