Parent Views | EBSNA (Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance)
Jun 20, 2023
‘Emotionally-based school non-attendance’ (EBSNA) is increasingly understood as a multi-faceted difficulty, with a range of school, home and individual factors contributing to a child’s or young person’s anxiety around attending school.
The literature on this topic therefore highlights the importance of adopting a multi-systemic, or collaborative, approach to supporting EBSNA in line with Bronfenbrenner’s ‘Eco systemic’ Theory, with a ‘one size fits all approach’ being viewed as unhelpful. Recently, the Department for Education have published guidance around ‘Summary of responsibilities where a mental health issue is affecting attendance’ (February 2023) . This references the need to involve parents when developing action plans around attendance, suggesting increased acknowledgement of the need for a joint-systems approach.
Despite this, however research suggests this may not be happening in practice, with parents reporting feelings of ‘blame’ and ‘abandonment’ from professionals*. To date, few studies have explored the parental voice on this topic, despite the responsibility placed upon them within legislation and statutory guidance, which ultimately will prevent effective collaboration and understanding across systems.
Within my research , I explored the views of five parents whose children had previously experienced EBSNA, hoping to learn more about ‘what works’ when supporting this difficulty, as well as what professionals can be doing more of when working with children and families, to inform a ‘joined up’ approach to support.
The six resulting themes are displayed below, and represent a framework (‘SPIRAL’) that both schools and external professionals can refer to when planning and implementing EBSNA support, as well as when evaluating existing support pathways. It is hoped that this framework, drawn directly from parental voice and experience, can inform developments in professional practice, leading to parents feeling included, supported and heard when addressing their child’s needs.
Supporting Parents
Parents highlighted a need to access emotional and practical support in order to meet their child’s needs and feel able to advocate for them, which included communicating with other parents, accessing emotional support and having their own needs met (e.g. health needs, transport, advocacy services etc,)
• Emotional support and reassurance
• Parent-to-parent support
• Understanding parents
Promoting CYP’s Sense of Belonging
Parents highlighted the need for an individualised and person-centred approach to supporting EBSNA that promoted their child’s sense of inclusion and moved at their pace. This included considering the child’s wellbeing as well as learning and attendance.
• Relationship-based approach
• Person-centred approach
• Promoting psychological safety.
Informing and Including parents
Parents shared that regular communication and information sharing with schools, as well as consistency, contributed to the developing of trusting and collaboration home-school partnerships. This was viewed as critical for successful EBSNA support.
• Maintaining trusted relationships
• Listening to parents’ views
• Signposting and navigating services.
Raising awareness of EBSNA
Parents discussed the need for increased understanding of anxiety within schools, and how this supports early identification and intervention for EBSNA-related difficulties.
• Professional knowledge and understanding.
• Need for early intervention.
Accessing external professionals
Parents shared the importance of involving different professionals depending on the child’s needs and barriers to attendance, however highlighted that this is most effective when this involvement included parents in action planning. Parents also noted that long waiting lists and complex referral processes were currently preventing early intervention from taking place, and that easier access to professionals is need to support both schools and families experiencing EBSNA.
• Specialist knowledge in action planning.
• Working in collaboration with parents
• Difficulty accessing services
Lessons learnt from Covid
Parents spoke positively about the Covid-19 school closures, with their child’s anxiety appearing to reduce with the removed pressure of attending school. Some shared how the remote learning provided this time allowed their child to re-engage and catch up with missed learning time, whilst others discussed how relationships were formed and maintained remotely, suggesting that adjustments made during this time could work well for CYP experiencing EBSNA.
EBSA Horizons Educational Psychologist CPD
EBSA Horizons is a comprehensive CPD course for EPs, which develops understanding and skills to support children and young people experiencing difficulties attending school. This course has been recently updated for 2023 with two new chapters -
Chapter 6: Supporting Autistic CYP Experiencing EBSA
Chapter 7: Entrenched EBSA
Find out more about EBSA Horizons here and register your interest to receive 3 FREE key resources from this course.
EBSA Horizons School Staff Training
EBSA Horizons School Training is an equally comprehensive CPD course for School Staff, which also develops understanding and skills to support children and young people experiencing difficulties attending school. This course has been updated for 2023 with a new chapter -
Chapter 6: The Systemic Change Model of EBSA
Find out more about EBSA Horizons School Training here and register your interest to receive 3 FREE key resources from this course.
See the Checklist for Attendance Tracking and Support from EBSA Horizons from this course.
References
[1] Nuttall, C., & Woods, K. (2013). Effective intervention for school refusal behaviour. Educational Psychology in Practice, 29(4), 347-366, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2013.846848
[1] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). Ecological systems theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Six theories of child development: Revised formulations and current issues (pp. 187-249). Jessica Kingsley Publishers
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