EBSA and Social Services Assessment

[joanna123457]

Hi all. Does anyone have any experience of this? I have 4 children, three of whom go to primary and secondary school with no issues of going at all. My daughter who is almost 11 hasn’t been to school since end of last October. She has EBSA and the school have ྀིྀི said they have to refer to social services to do an assessment for her as her attendance is 12%. My issue is I have tried everything. I have paper trails and logs to show this, she’s a lovely quiet kind girl who does suffer with school anxiety no question. CAMHS wouldn’t take her on as she didn’t meet the threshold but I have no idea what to expect with a social services assessment as they have never ever been involved before so I’m really nervous.

In all honesty it just depends which social worker you end up with. School referred us to social services as my daughters behaviour in school was so extreme ( and they never believed me that she wasn't like that at home 😅 ) DD had been rejected from cahms 3 x by this point too

We got an amazing social worker, she changed our lives. Recognised my DD was ND, got her pushed to tbe top of the cahms waiting list ( she then got diagnosed ) advocated for us in meetings,

School had said they were going to get the attendance officer involved and social had basically said - absolutely not mums doing the best she can

Try not to worry, I was petrified. And they ended up being the best support I could of ever asked for 😅

It's been around 2 years now and school completely changed the way they were with me and my children after social got involved. School are now very supportive and supportive about my undiagnosed son too

Thanks for this. I’m just petrified and anxious about the whole thing as I’ve never ever had one before and my daughter just clamps down when it comes to speaking to people so I’m worried about the impact on her. I’m in the middle of doing up my house as well as it’s old so I’m terrified they will jump on the fact that my house isn’t a picture book one!

Could I ask how long it took for them to come and do an assessment? X

After social got her bumped to the top of the waiting list she was diagnosed within 3 months x

Thanks xx Did they come out and do an assessment at your home quite quick after being referred?

We went to them, ive never heard of them coming to peoples houses to do assessments but maybe some areas do.

It was 3 appointments in 3 months. First was an appointment for parents about / DD's childhood history/ school history

A month later it was an appointment for DD where they met her / she had a test for ADHD and an assessment for autism

A month later it was an appointment with the assessment/ test outcome

DD’s school referred me to SS because of her low attendance/ EBSA. They filled in a form and SS triaged it as meeting the threshold for Early Help, which is the most likely outcome in this situation unless your family has a lot of other issues. Early Help is a voluntary thing so you do not have to accept their support. For me (and it’s probably different in different areas), someone rang me a couple of months later and asked if I wanted support, I asked what they could offer, she went through what they could offer and we agreed there was nothing I didn’t already have in place (counselling for her and me, waiting list for ASD assessment, reduced timetable in school that was helping at that point). The next year in another school, they did another referral, which led to us being allocated a support worker. She came to a meeting at the school first and met me then came to the house every few weeks to meet DD and talk to me. She did some work with DD about anxiety, but wasn’t particularly helpful because we had already tried the things she suggested, I have heard of people who have had really positive experiences with Early Help though. I did worry about her judging the state of the house, but I think they understand unless it’s filthy or dangerous, especially as you said you are having work done on yours so it is very understandable. I hope something helps you and your DD, this is such a difficult situation to be in.