Safeguarding and Attendance: Understanding EBSA
This year the Department for Education and Ofsted have a major focus on attendance, with Inspectors looking for all staff to have an understanding of the issues. The links with safeguarding are very strong, and research shows this first half term is key in making a difference.
Safeguarding Network have partnered with EdPsychEd, a company founded by educational psychologists to really develop our understanding of Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Over the next four weeks we will share the thinking around EBSA with free resources to help you and your staff team reframe school avoidance into a strong, student-centred understanding of the challenge of attendance, one which will create bonds you can build on through the year with students and their families.
Our first blog sets out what we mean by Emotionally Based School Avoidance and why our perspective on attendance really matters in practice.
Understanding Emotionally Based School Avoidance
As a Designated Safeguarding Lead you work with the most vulnerable children in your school. Keeping Children Safe in Education sets out that DSLs must understand "the welfare, safeguarding and child protection issues that children in need are experiencing, or have experienced, and identifying the impact that these issues might be having on children's attendance, engagement and achievement at school".
This understanding is crucial as students struggle with school attendance. Children with social workers, those who've experienced trauma, or young people with complex family circumstances are at significantly higher risk of experiencing what we understand as Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Children with disabilities may have health related reasons for absence, but in addition have their own emotional journeys that affect their relationships with school and peers.
What is EBSA?
The concept of EBSA is relatively new. It moves away from concepts of 'School Refusal' which imply a choice being made, to a more compassionate understanding that difficulties with attendance are often rooted in emotional anguish caused and maintained by a range of school-related anxieties.
For the more vulnerable children this shift in our understanding is particularly important. The students you support are at higher risk of experiencing EBSA as their underlying lived experiences – trauma, family instability, or ongoing stress – can make the school environment feel overwhelming or threatening. Rather than viewing attendance struggles as behavioural choices, EBSA recognises them as emotional responses that require support, not punishment.
Creating Understanding of EBSA Across Your Setting
You play a crucial role in helping everyone in your school understand why some vulnerable children struggle with attendance. Staff may unknowingly respond to these children with frustration or disciplinary measures, not realising they're dealing with anxiety-driven responses rather than defiant behaviour. Parents, too, may be struggling with why their child is not attending. It’s important to attend to all these concerns and support effective strategies to reduce stress to improve attendance and engagement.
Creating a shared understanding between student, parent and staff of Emotionally Based School Avoidance and the anxiety cycle enables us to begin our conversations with a focus on personally effective strategies for change.
What is EBSA and The Anxiety Cycle?
Over this series of four blogs Safeguarding Network and EdPsychEd will bring you some resources to support your team in their approach to Emotionally Based School Avoidance. With this article we are offering two 7-minute videos about EBSA.
The first of the video resources gives you a ready-made tool for staff meetings, helping your team understand that attendance difficulties in vulnerable children often stem from emotional distress rather than behavioural choices. When staff understand EBSA, they're better equipped to respond compassionately to the children you're already supporting through safeguarding frameworks.
The second video looks at how the cyclical effects of anxiety can grow from small beginnings to fully fledged school avoidance, creating an opportunity for your staff team to consider how they recognise EBSA and intervene at the earliest stage.
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Our next article will focus on proactive, collaborative approaches with families - reaching out early when attendance patterns first begin to change.
Safeguarding Network is offering members and blog readers discount codes of up to £100 off EdPsychEd’s School Training resources with our special discount codes.
Individual Staff Training Licence
£10 off for Members and Non-members - use code EBSA10
£25 off for Non-members - use code EBSA25
£50 off for Safeguarding Network Members - use code SGN50
Whole School and Family License
£25 off for Non-members - use code EBSA25
£100 off for Safeguarding Network Members - use code SGN100
LEARN MORE ABOUT EBSA HORIZONS SCHOOL TRAINING AND JOIN TODAY
Terms and conditions:
By using these codes you confirm that you are happy for EdPsychEd to share your purchase details with Safeguarding Network.
If you use a member voucher you confirm you are a paying member of Safeguarding Network.
About EdPsychEd
EdPsychEd offer a comprehensive CPD course with associated resources to support your setting’s work with Emotionally Based School Avoidance. Their EBSA Horizons training takes a tiered approach to building your staff understanding of EBSA in an eLearning format with child-friendly assessment resources to support your work with students.
Effective work around attendance involves and empowers students and their families. At the request of local authorities EdPsychEd developed a learning and resource series for families to follow to improve their understanding and approach to reducing Emotionally Based School Avoidance in their children. Hundreds of schools across the country are using the EBSA Horizons framework and resources to support the attendance, engagement and wellbeing of their children and young people.
If you would like to discuss EdPsychEd's offering please contact Dr Jenny Dutton directly, here.
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