What we’re working on
Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
What do we mean by Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)?
Emotionally based school avoidance is a term used to describe children and young people who experience significant and enduring challenges in attending school due to emotional factors.
EBSA reflects the underlying psychological processes when the “stress response” and cycle of anxiety and avoidance has become triggered.
It is not a diagnosis but a way to help us understand the needs of children who experience distress around attending school.
Hearing the voices of Families
At SGPC we have been hearing the voices of our families telling us that school attendance has raised challenges for their children and young people for a number of years. We have done a great deal of work to help support our families and raise awareness of the difficulties being faced.
For more information, please see our news posts below, where you will find details of our journey on this important topic as well as updates.
As a result of your voices and SGPC’s efforts to raise awareness of EBSA, a steering committee was formed with the support of the Local Authority’s Lead Educational Psychologist.
Resources
Check out our resources section, where you will find our EBSA guide.
Launched in 2025, the guide signposts to support for both parents and young people and breaks down common myths that parents may hear.
A Steering Committee is formed
Our Areawide Annual survey 2021, and our SEN Support Survey in 2021, both highlighted parent carers concerns surrounding their child’s non-attendance at school related to;
Anxiety
Not coping with the school environment
School refusal, lack of support in school
Part time timetable
Depression
Friendship issues and bullying.
These finding of both reports were highlighted to the local authority, with subsequent meetings with the Educational Psychologist Lead. A Steering Committee was formed to look at how to address these issues and to put into place solutions.
Who is part of the Steering Committee?
Educational Psychologists
SGPC
Schools
Support services across health and social care
Steering Committee Aims
Identification and early intervention
Numbers of children experiencing EBSA
Gathering information
Evidence based models of EBSA to support early targeted support e.g. research.
Graduated Support available
For young people
For parent carers
For schools
For Professionals
Multi-agency Pathways
Raising the profile of EBSA & Training
EBSA Toolkit for schools
Training for Schools
The EBSA Toolkit for Schools and Educational Settings
“We heard all about the experiences and challenges of EBSA from parents and carers, particularly in regards to not feeling listened to early enough or even blamed, so we put together an EBSA working group consisting of the parent carer forum and professionals from health, social care, education settings to see what we could do.
We weren’t getting early help right; not all schools were confident in their strategy, and we didn’t have a centralised approach. So, the educational psychologists started working on an EBSA Toolkit for schools to enable prevention, early identification, and intervention – giving schools the resources to map support around individuals.”
Dr Helen Cox, Principal Educational Psychologist
Schools training with the EBSA Toolkit started in 2023
The toolkit includes sections on what EBSA is, what schools can do to support children and looks at various stages of early intervention and strategies, e.g. if a child is consistently late, can reasonable adjustments be made?
It also discusses risk and resilience and push and pull factors, e.g. bullying, transport, and bereavement, and takes a whole school approach for intervention and prevention.
See below for the latest news and events
