Next steps- assess and plan

Supporting a child or young person experiencing emotional distress and social isolation requires thorough understanding of their situation, involving collection of detailed background information, analysis of potential causes, and participation from the child and their significant others, leading to a working hypothesis that will guide future interventions.

For any intervention or support plan to be successful, it is essential to gain an understanding of the various aspects at the core of the child or young person’s emotional distress or social isolation that may be causing and maintaining the EBSA behaviours. It is vital that children and young people’s behaviours are understood in the full complexity of their lives as unique human beings. 

Gaining this understanding is crucial to: 

• confirm that the child is displaying EBSA as opposed to truancy or parentally condoned absence. 
• assess the extent and severity of the absence and the anxiety. 
• gather information regarding the various child, family and school factors that may be contributing to the EBSA. 
• combine the information to arrive at a practical working hypothesis as a prelude to planning effective interventions.  

The child or young person and their parent or carer must remain at the centre of all discussions and planning.  They are crucial in unpicking the EBSA behaviours and planning meaningful and effective support to remove barriers.  They are the key element in gathering and understanding: 

• the child or young person’s strengths and difficulties
• developmental and family history
• primary and secondary factors at work to produce the child or young person’s struggles
• possible functions of school non-attendance for the child or young person
• the risk and protective factors that are present
• the push and pull factors that are present

It can be tempting to try and identify a simple reason and simple solution for the EBSA behaviour.  However, as identified earlier, EBSA is complex and often an interaction of several factors.  Therefore, for assessment to be meaningful it will need to be multi-faceted and use a mixture of creative tools for drawing out views.  

Understanding the current situation for the child or young person, from their perspective, will give a rich and detailed insight into their world view and understanding of what is going on around them and can often reveal a different perspective to the adults who know them well.  Acknowledging these different perspectives is important as this can then lead to more individualised, meaningful and effective interventions.  

It is crucial there is a relationship of trust between the child or young person and adult completing the assessments so that it is with someone they feel safe and secure with. The richest information will come from sessions where: 

• relationships have been established. 
• there is positive regard and respect. 
• strengths and interests are used to heighten engagement. 
• approaches used to gather views have been adapted to individual needs, age and levels.                   

Think about the most effective ways to gather these views and be guided by the child or young person and those that know them best.  Who gathers the views, when and where?  For example, a neutral place, while engaged in an activity that reduces direct pressure on the child or young person, without parents or carers present (to enable the child or young person to speak freely) or with parent and carers present (to enable the child or young person to feel more secure).  This will vary according to the child or young person and their relationships with adults at school. 

The child or young person questionnaire can be used to collect these views.  The short or long version can be used depending on the age, ability or individual circumstances of the child or young person.  You can supplement this with other means, such as the questionnaire visual cards to ensure robust gathering of information. These can be found in the EBSA toolkit and includes blank cards for the child or young person to interact and design their own to further share their voice.

The questions within the questionnaire are aimed at guiding a conversation with the child or young person to capture robust and meaningful information.  They should not be used as a basic question and answer and tick box exercise. 

Remember that any child or young person who feels too distressed to attend school will become anxious when asked to discuss a return.  Nobody will gladly force themselves into a situation where they predict feelings of terror or acute distress.  They are managing their feelings of anxiety or distress by shielding themselves from the environment that causes it, so any conversation about a return to school may appear as you attempting to take away their coping mechanism or dismissing their anxieties, worries or distress.  Therefore, it is helpful to start conversations acknowledging that it will be difficult, but important to understand how they think, feel, and act.  It will also be key to highlight that anxiety or distress is unlikely to go away before attending school.  Most of the time, the anxiety or distress will diminish after attending school, provided that support is put in place. 

It is essential to take the time to build a collaborative partnership working relationship with parent/carers to maximise successful outcomes. While the focus should remain on the child or young person, it is important to acknowledge any parent anxieties and their perspective.  As with gathering the child or young person’s views, it is also important to consider the most effective ways to make parent/carers feel at ease.  Who gathers the views, when and where?  

The parent or carer questionnaire can be used to collect these views and can be found in the toolkit.  The short or long version can be used as appropriate and depending on the individual circumstances.  You can supplement this with other means to ensure robust gathering of information.  As with the child or young person questionnaire, the parent or carer questionnaire is aimed at guiding a conversation to capture robust and meaningful information and should not be used as a basic question and answer and tick box exercise. 
  
At the initial meeting, there should be a clear meeting agenda to gather background information, including developmental and family history, establish the current situation and gain parent or carer views on the current situation. 

Questions should be asked sensitively using active listening skills:   

Plans should be put in place for regular contact to take place with parent or carer and with the child or young person, how this will take place and a key person identified to be the point of contact.  It is then important that this is adhered to so that the relationship and trust continues to be embedded and built on.    

It is important to gather the views of staff in school or other professionals that know the child or young person best.  This may need to be gathered through conversation or via a ‘round robin’ questionnaire.  Again, consider the most effective way to gain this information. The key person or professional questionnaire and the class teacher questionnaire can be used to collect these views, and can be found in the EBSA toolkit.

Remember the important element is the quality, depth and richness of the information that is gathered!