Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance
Emotionally based school non-attendance (EBSNA) is where a child or young person (CYP) feels unable to access education due to of anxiety or similar difficulties very often associated with the CYP’s special educational needs (SEN)
EBSNA is not simply truancy or school refusal. It is genuine emotional distress that affects school attendance in many ways, including:
- Complete absence from school
- Periodic absences or missing specific classes.
- Difficulty attending school after weekends or holidays.
- Frequent late arrivals or early departures
- Extreme distress when attending school.
What support is available in school?
Schools should work together with children / young people and their families to understand and remove the barriers to attendance and provide CYP with additional support where needed.
Schools have a legal duty to identify and support any special educational needs or disabilities that a CYP may have and also to make “reasonable adjustments” for disabled pupils.
The term “special educational needs” includes social, emotional and mental health needs. A CYP does not need to be struggling academically or have a diagnosis to access SEN support.
Schools should also consider whether additional support from other services (including the local authority, children and young people’s mental health services, GPs, or other health services) would be appropriate and make referrals where appropriate.
Parents/carers are expected to engage with the support offered.
You can ask the school for a meeting to discuss what might be causing the school anxiety and what support is available.
Support and adjustments that schools may be able to provide
The Department for Education (DfE) has issued guidance for schools giving examples of the kind of support and adjustments that they may be able to provide including:
- Pupils could pre-order lunch for the staff to collect and distribute to the pupil to eat in solace.
- Staff members could support pupils to integrate into the canteen to build their confidence with eating in the assigned area.
- Seating at breaks and lunches could be provided to support with anxiety.
- Pupils could be withdrawn from lessons on a short-term basis and work on emotional regulation strategies, to enhance their resilience and try to alleviate anxiety about attending school.
- Pupils could be provided with “Early Leave” cards to allow them to avoid main transition times in corridors between classes.
- School could provide pupils with a short period of phased timetabling to allow a transition back into school to attend full-time. Where the pupil is in school but does not attend all lessons, school could work with the pupil to support with any anxiety they are experiencing during time not spent in class.
- Pupils could sit exams in smaller rooms. (Access Arrangements)
- Ear defenders could be provided to pupils who are particularly sensitive to noise.
- Pupils with sensory needs could be considered as part of the school uniform policy, such as allowing them to wear shorts instead of trousers.
- Pupils could attend draw and talk, baking, and gardening therapy sessions, as well as group social skills lessons.
- Pupils could be offered a “meet and greet” at the school gate to support transition back into school after period of absence.
- Pupils should be made aware that they could speak with anyone they have confidence in. Staff should know that, where they need help, they should contact a member of the trained mental health team.
- Pupils could be paired up with buddies/mentors.
- Pupils could be encouraged to take part in after-school clubs.
- Pupils could access a pastoral/safeguarding drop-in chat team.
- Pupils could be offered 1-1 support to “catch-up” on core content for English/Maths. This is often a barrier to returning if pupils are overwhelmed with lessons they have missed.
- Pupils could be offered 1-1 or group sessions with a pastoral coach using sport, which could be an escape from the pressures of school life and help the pupil with any feelings of anxiousness they are experiencing.
When your Child or Young Person has an EHCP
If your Child or Young Person (CYP) has an EHCP but is still struggling to attend school, it may indicate that the provisions specified in Section F of the EHCP are no longer / not working and need to be reviewed, or the identified special educational needs in Section B no longer provide a true and clear reflection of needs.
You could request an emergency review of your CYP’s EHCP so that it can be reviewed and check if any amendments need to be made.
Alternatively, if there have been significant changes to your CYP’s special educational needs and updated professional advice is required, you could consider asking for a full reassessment of their EHCP.
If the EHCP does not include their mental health needs or provision to meet those needs, it will be important for the EHCP to be updated to include this information.
It is set out in section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 that the local authority (LA) MUST secure the special educational provision set out in Section F of an EHCP. and applies whether or not your child is attending school unless you have chosen to home educate.
The duty to secure the special educational provision under section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 is in addition to the duty to put temporary education in place under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.
Getting temporary education in place (Section 19 of the Education Act 1996) If your child cannot attend school
If a child / young person is of compulsory school age but is not able to attend school because of a mental or physical health need the local authority has a legal duty to provide alternative education for them under certain circumstances. For example, if your child is unable to attend school despite you working with professionals to get them back into school, and they are not reasonably able to attend, then the local authority must provide suitable alternative education.
As soon as it is clear that a child / young person will be away from school for 15 days or more because of their health needs, the local authority should arrange suitable alternative education. The 15 days may be consecutive or over the course of a school year.
Access and Inclusion Service
Central Bedfordshire’s Access and Inclusion Service within the Education Welfare Service can be helpful in providing strategies and support for pupils who are beginning to become school-anxious
Phone: 0300 300 6291.
Medical Needs Education Team
This is an alternative way of providing temporary education under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.
Central Bedfordshire’s Medical Needs Education Team are fully qualified teachers who provide teaching for pupils who are temporarily unable to attend school due to health reasons.
Referrals are made by the school, and the service needs sign off from a medical practitioner such as CAMHS.
SECTION 19 Education Team
The Section 19 Education Team's role is to support parents and their children / young people with their education, whilst they are unable to access school. The Section 19 Education Team is a short-term reintegration service, offering online, face to face and AV1 arrangements for education under the Section 19 duty ‘otherwise’ category
What if you are being threatened with prosecution or fines?
Every local authority must draw up a Local Code of Conduct for issuing fixed penalty notices which must be followed by all schools and any LA officer issuing a penalty notice. A copy of the Central Bedfordshire Fixed Penalty Notice Code of Conduct is available from Central Bedfordshire’s Access and Inclusion Service on request.
WHAT ACTION CAN YOU TAKE?
The attendance policy should be on the school’s website, or you can ask school to provide you with a copy.
The attendance policy should clearly outline expectations, processes, and procedures.
Is school following its own policy?
If not, you could raise this with the school.
Schools should work with the pupil and their family to identify barriers to attendance and put support in place early. Parents are expected to engage with the school.
- Has school explained their concerns and given you and your child opportunities to explain the situation and what your child’s challenges are?
- Has school listened to and understood you and your child?
- Has school put the right support in place?
- Has school made reasonable adjustments for your child? (Under the Equality Act 2010, schools should make reasonable adjustments to policies and practices, so disabled pupils are not substantially disadvantaged compared to those who are not disabled.)
- Has school referred you to wider support services e.g. Team Around the Family Service, School Nursing Team, CAMHS, Youth Service, etc?
- Has school made requests for specialist assessments (if applicable)?
- Has school signposted you to additional support services?
If not, you could request a meeting with the school where they can listen, understand and work together with you to help get the right support in place for your child.
Keep a record of events and dates so you are clear on what has happened and when, including evidence of your engagement with the school, and what the school has done to date.
It can be helpful to create a timeline/chronology of events. Think about:
- What conversations or communications have you had with the school?
- What support have you requested? What was school’s response?
- What referrals, support and interventions have been offered to you and your child? What was your response? If you declined support, what was the reason?
- What referrals, support and interventions have been actioned by the school?
- Has school documented referrals and actions, noting who will take forward each action? Have they shared this with you?
- Has school shared with you notes following any meetings held? If not, you can ask them for a copy.
- If you are not able to attend a meeting with the school to discuss your child’s attendance, keep a record of the reason why you can’t attend and make sure the school is aware so that they can rearrange it for you.
- Remember to report details of all absences to the school and keep a record for yourself, including the reason your child is unable to attend and any symptoms.
The Department for Education has produced statutory guidance for schools and local authorities on attendance:
Working together to improve school attendance
Schools and the LA must comply with the statutory guidance, unless there is an exceptional reason not to.
Are the school and local authority following the statutory guidance?
Useful references:
- Expectations of schools: From paragraph 15 (page 11)
- Part-time timetables: From paragraph 65 (page 25)
- Attendance contracts: From paragraph 140 (page 48) - There is no obligation on the school or local authority to offer an attendance contract, and it may not be appropriate in every instance, but an attendance contract should always be explored before moving forward to prosecution.
- Attendance prosecution: From paragraphs 161 (page 52)
- Penalty notices: From paragraph 176 (page 56)
- Considerations to decide whether to issue a penalty notice: Paragraph 182 (page 57)
- Notices to improve: From paragraph 186 (page 58)
- Coding absences and asking for medical evidence: From paragraphs 364 (page 86)