EBSA toolkit

2. Summary Toolkit

Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) or Emotionally Based Non-Attendance (EBNA) refers to young people who have trouble attending school because of emotional difficulties. Early signs can include avoiding certain classes, people, places, or often being late

In East Sussex, EBSA is a concern, and to help with it, the council recommends using the "Assess, Plan, Do, Review" method. This approach helps understand the child’s feelings and creates a plan to help them attend school more regularly.

The toolkit uses a system with different levels to understand EBSA:

Tier 1: 93%+ attendance, might include in-school EBSA or frequent lateness
Tier 2: 80-92% attendance, possible EBSA, lateness, suspensions, or being sent out of class
Tier 3: 51-79% attendance, possible EBSA, lateness, suspensions, or being sent out of class
Tier 4: 0-50% attendance, possible EBSA, lateness, suspensions, or being sent out of class

Schools, colleges, and local services have different roles in supporting children and young people with EBSA.

Further information about understanding EBSA and the following topics are available:

What children and young people say about why they experienced EBSA

"Had difficulties fitting in and felt socially isolated"
"School was too noisy"
"I didn't fit in, and it was easier to avoid going in, rather than ask for help"
"No-one noticed the warning signs"
"Didn't feel safe in school and lacked safe spaces"
"I hated speaking in class and everyone looking at me"

Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) Checklist

This checklist helps you figure out if a child might have EBSA and how to help. Since every child’s situation is different, it’s important to talk with other professionals, the child, and their family when making a plan.

Use this checklist with the EBSA Toolkit, which gives more tips on how to prevent and handle attendance problems when EBSA is a concern.

Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) Checklist [18.1 KB] [docx]

General principles for supporting children and young people experiencing EBSA are:

Prevention and early intervention
Assessing and building an understanding of EBSA
Work with the child/young person and the family throughout
Develop a holistic action plan
Review plans regularly
Whole school prevention and intervention

Assessing and Understanding EBSA

Start by using the EBSA Screening tool to find out if a child might be at risk of EBSA. It's important to look into what makes it hard for them to attend school so you can help them before the problems get worse.
If you find a risk of EBSA, use the EBSA profile tool [229.1 KB] [docx] to look at all the factors that might be affecting the child. Do this along with the "Involving Children and Young People" section.
It's easier to help a child who is going to school or college than one who is not attending at all. Schools and colleges with good policies for supporting attendance, well-being, and key transitions can spot those at risk of EBSA earlier.
The push and pull model can help understand what makes children want to go to school or stay away.

Involving Children and Young People/ Parents and Carers/ Professionals

The EBSA formulation form [227.8 KB] [docx]helps bring together information from the child, school, and family to understand the situation better.

Parents and Carers

Talking with parents and carers helps you understand the child’s situation better. They can help figure out if the child’s absence is due to EBSA or other reasons, like not being able to afford the bus fare or work commitments.

When you notice absenteeism or lateness, a staff member should contact the parents or carers right away. This helps everyone work together to understand the child’s needs and address any issues.
Send the parent and carer information booklet to explain EBSA, how they can join meetings, and how they can help their child.
Building a good partnership with parents/carers is important. Children may not always be able to explain their difficulties, so parents and carers can help understand their needs and find solutions.
Keep a regular, two-way conversation with a staff member to share updates and concerns. Agree on how often and in what format to communicate (like daily emails or weekly calls). Example of questions [228.1 KB] [docx] that you can ask can be found here.

Children and Young People Voice

It’s important to ask children and young people about their worries and what makes school difficult for them. Choose someone they feel comfortable talking to.
Involve them in creating support plans so they feel more engaged. Prepare them for meetings and let them share their thoughts in ways they are comfortable with.
If they miss important meetings, make sure they get the key points afterward.
Share concerns with them in a way that suits their age and focus on finding solutions.

Activities to gather information

Suggested activities and tools to gather information include:

Professionals/Setting Staff

Work together with everyone involved—parents, school staff, and other professionals—to create a consistent approach for the child. A united effort is best.

Use the school staff information form to gather input from those who know the child well.
Consult with the school’s SENCo or pastoral team and follow the Vulnerable Learners Protocol (VLP), to ensure proper planning from year 9 onwards.
Other services or professionals working with the child might offer valuable insights and additional support.

Action Planning and Intervention

Planning

To help kids go to school or college more often, make a plan that focuses on what they’re good at and addresses the problems found during the assessment. You can use the Return to Educational Setting Action Support Plan Template [229.6 KB] [docx] to help with this.
Set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) with the child, their family, and the school.
Make sure the plan takes into account the school or college setting, the family’s situation, and why the child feels anxious.

The plan should:

be realistic and achievable with the eventual aim of reintegrating the child or young person back into the educational setting.
focus on small steps of progress and what is needed to achieve those small steps.
explicitly outline what steps parents and carers, staff and young people will take. If appropriate, a separate version of the support plan should be created for the child or young person.
Once actions on a support plan are agreed with the young person, stick to what has been agreed for that week, even if things seem to be going well. Pushing things further than agreed can heighten anxiety, reduce trust and backfire overall. You may wish to look at the strategies sections of this guidance for ideas about what to include in the plan.
Schedule times to review the plan and celebrate any successes, however small!

Intervention

Low risk strategies

Beginning to have concerns. Early intervention could prevent escalation of need. Child/Young person can still attend with support in place

Attendance monitored closely - Parents/carers to notify school staff the first day the child/young person can’t attend due to either physical or mental health. School should record these as authorised. School attendance officer reports anomalies or patterns in attendance as soon as identified to pastoral/SENCo teams.

Meeting with parent/carers at home or at school - Build positive relationships with families. Listen to their story, plan strategies together and review them within a 6-week period. Gain permission to coordinate further support from other services. Support if parents feel the child needs to visit a specialist.

Detailed Pupil Voice - Should be completed with a staff member or adult they know. What would make a difference? Are there other issues beyond health e.g. friendship issues?

School Health Team - This team can provide health advice or information and can sign post to other services

Assessing Risk of EBSA -Working with the family and key professionals to identify the triggers that may lead to anxiety in school to anticipate and avoid these. Circulate with key staff. Regularly review this.

Peer Mentoring - Consider whether a peer mentor would be appropriate to support sense of school belonging.

Time out systems and use of a safe space - Agreed in advance by student and staff. Location of safe space identified. Enabling the pupil to access the space whenever required.

Robust transition support - Identify where transition may be difficult. This may be large transitions, such as change of year or change of buildings, or daily transitions. Provide support through methods such as social stories/pictures of new spaces/introductions to new key adults.

Staff training/awareness - Raising awareness and understanding of the causes and support for EBSA will lead to better support. Information and strategies to be used in classrooms are clearly displayed in staffrooms. Senior leaders to complete the whole school audit to appreciate where next steps could improve school approach.

Adjustments and flexibility in the classroom - Seating and classroom layout planned to meet needs of individual student (medical, social, emotional). Young person has been part of the planning for this. Use of adjusted methods of learning, such as IT equipment. Modified plan for PE and outdoor play.

Stability in staffing and peer grouping - Can you reduce the number of staff working with the student? Choose staff and students who work well with the young person.

Arrangements for work completed out of school - Discuss with young person and family whether it would be appropriate to send meaningful work home and provide feedback from subject teachers during absence. This will vary depending on the situation and should be carefully monitored so it does not increase anxiety.

Adaptation of whole school behaviour policy to meet personal needs of a student - E.g. Uniform adjustments for student with sensory needs, any adjustments communicated to all staff. Use of a Therapeutic Thinking approach.

Assessment of other learning needs - Check that the need isn’t an unmet learning difficulty.

Medium risk strategies

Triangulating attendance data, family and young person’s views has indicated that EBSA is the key attendance difficulty. Green level strategies are not improving the situation and concern from all parties has heightened.

Key Adult - A named adult who is in every day that the student can check-in with, or who has scheduled times that they check in with the young person. Ideally a member of staff in the school who the child has identified as having a positive relationship with, not necessarily one of their teachers.

Use of a safe place for learning Agreed in collaboration with young person and key adult. Can the young person complete their work outside of the classroom when needed? Is there an office or meeting room where they feel safe?

Adjusted Timetable Planned carefully and tailored to match young person’s needs at that time and in agreement with the family. Young person could attend lessons they like best; start later; go home for lunch or at unstructured times; reduce option subjects; arrange other provisions (e.g. work experience, Albion in the Community, Plumpton College, Duke of Edinburgh). Be creative. Ensure this plan is regularly reviewed with parents and young person.

Intervention programs - Think carefully about the type of need and the appropriate intervention to support the student:

Anxiety and resilience building programs such as Worry busters
Exam stress intervention groups
Social skills intervention groups
Use of SEAL materials Nurture groups.
Thrive program.
Interventions to support learning needs.

Record any interventions through the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ process.

Advice from specialists, multi-agency collaboration, may need to make a referral -

CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health service)
CITES (Children’s Integrated Therapy Service for physical
Occupational or speech and language difficulties)
CLASS (Communication, Learning and Autism Support Service)
Early Years Service
Early Help Key Worker Services (Emotional well-being Team),
EBSA network meeting – school staff can schedule to attend for troubleshooting and support
Educational Psychology Service
Attendance or Behaviour Advisors MHST (Mental Health Support Teams)

Counselling Services - In school or supporting family to find outside of school services.

Exam Access Arrangements - E.g. Safe room, rest breaks, specialist equipment, extra time

High risk strategies

Following Tier 1-3 strategies, there has been no progress. Young person is not accessing education and has been out of school for 15 days or more (consecutive or cumulative). There is robust evidence of need.

Speak to your Education Division link/refer to Early Help Attendance Service - Investigate alternative learning provisions for the young person through the Local Offer Directory. Liaise with Education Division contacts, parents and young person throughout this process and consider making a front door referral if further support is required.

Other suggestions for interventions aligned to the function of EBSA

Create and use whole school approaches (WSA) to support mental health and emotional wellbeing (MHEW). Use an auditing tool to make sure that parents, teachers, support staff, and other key people know the early signs of EBSA, how to help, and what steps the school or college will take.
Schools with strong policies for attendance, well-being, and key transitions can spot those at risk of EBSA earlier.
Involve children and young people in making decisions when you can. Consider setting up a school council or ambassadors to help with this.

Signposting and Referral Options

For information about Signposting and Referral Options, please see the Signposting page.

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