Has anyone had a social services assessment for school avoidance?

[joanna123457]

Hi everyone. Has anyone had experience of this? I have 4 children, one of which has Emotionally Based school avoidance. She hasnt been to school since last October and lots of things have been tried. My other 3 children go to school fine. She is almost 11 and to start high school in September. Her current school have referred this to social services so Im expecting an assessment! I have lots of logs and paper trails with everything that I have tried to get her there and I have always kept the school fully updated with everything and evidence. Has anyone ever had an assessment done before? Thanks

Thankyou for this. Ill be honest the school have been shocking. Didn’t see her for 12 weeks and all of a sudden because I put in a complaint as she is a child who is still a pupil at school who deserves to be seen, asked about and visited/help accessed all of a sudden the school have reported to social services purely for attendance.

They will try to help with the before and after school routines etc that school can’t help with

I’ve asked AI to summarise this but this is exactly what happened to us and we now have AP provision.
Go straight to the local authority
contact the council’s education team and say:
“My child is not receiving suitable education. I am requesting provision under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996.”
That matters because under Education Act 1996 Section 19, the LA has a legal duty to arrange suitable full-time education if a child:
—can’t attend school (for any reason: anxiety, exclusion risk, unmet needs)
—isn’t accessing education properly

No diagnosis or EHCP is required to trigger this duty.

Perhaps it’s just early help? My kids school suggested a referral when I was going through the same. It’s voluntary and you can say no

OP hasn't said that is what her DC is doing, that is your prejudice talking. If you were mentally unwell due to work stress, would you remove everything but work from your life and focus solely on work?

Remember OP, SS are here to help. They know the law, they see this regularly. They will hopefully make sure the school are doing everything they can and get your DD the help she needs.

One more thing. Do not agree to come off this school roll. Schools often try this to avoid their responsibility. (They want you to electively home Ed to get you out of their hair) Stay on roll and then they still have to ensure she’s getting an education via section 19 during the EHCP waiting process.

You can apply for a EHCP yourself and should do so asap. This can last years and she doesn’t have to attend. Once section 19 is agreed they will stop hassling you te attendance in this waiting period.

OP what medical attention have you sought for your daughter's ill health?

If your daughter is so anxious she's been unable to attend school for several months presumably you've bed taking her to the GP and seeking a referral for CAMHS?

And to be honest if waiting lists are long if you can afford to id be attempting to seek private mental health medical support, at the point where a child is so poorly they have missed months of school they need help urgently.

That's the evidence you need to provide to school for them to mark her as authorised absence due to being unwell - evidence of visits to the GP, referrals for mental health support.

Tbh in this case I think you need to try a bit harder to get her to school, can you offer some incentives/rewards eg if she goes into school Mon Tues Thurs and Fri she can have a day at home on a Wednesday in the middle to recover if she's feeling overwhelmed? That way she would only ever have to do 2 days before having time to rest and recover a bit? 80% attendance would be miles better than 12%.

I really hope you do get an assessment. You badly need help. You’ve been struggling on your own with an impossible and damaging situation for too long.

It’s likely early help not a social worker led assessment. The govt guidance Working together to improve attendance says about council responsibilities ‘Multi-disciplinary support for families: provide access to early help support workers to work intensively with families to provide practical whole-family
support where needed to tackle the causes of absenteeism and unblock the barriers to attendance’. There is also guidance where mental health issues affect attendance. Read these and also look at IPSEA website. If you don’t voluntarily cooperate it’s more likely they will go the legal enforcement route for attendance. Having early help worker could be helpful in evidencing the anxiety and you can also ask for alternative education to be provided. The council should have a policy about alternative provision for medical needs on its website.

It might be helpful to read about exposure ladders. This is how to overcome anxiety about something by gradual controlled exposure in tiny achievable steps. However, if she is neurodivergent and is in breakdown then this would not be at all appropriate. What does she say about why school is too hard?

So does she have a phone? She's 10, 10 year olds should not have phones, they are terrible for their mental health and increase anxiety. Take it off her with love and bin it

Hi, thanks for that. She has already had a short spell of early help - a family support worker was brought in not long ago to support her with her school anxiety etc...she saw her twice then stopped seeing her as she wasnt able to see her in school.

Hilarious - very old fashioned view point. Not understanding the depths of EBSA and why it happens with children and how they are at rock bottom struggling with mental health and ND.

OP everything needs to be on email to the school. No friendly chats all emails (this will be your evidence)

Ring the dr (ask / pay for an email to log your viewpoint and her struggles)

In all honestly cahms are useless as they take too long to react / sort etc.

Hopefully your in a nice LA and not shocking 💩 Surrey.

Look up Ipsea website.

Dont be bullied. There is a good reason why your child can’t attend and their needs (what ever they are currently probably you don’t know the full extent is unable to attend).

If things get heavy - unfortunately if you can pay for a private psychiatrist to see your child and write the letter that will back off school and LA.

SW - are they looking at CIN or CWD. Honestly you can refuses as their help not appropriate.

Keep a log - email school daily. Be on the side of your child the school has different motives. You need your child’s mental health to be good.

Best of luck fight for your child 💪 against the LA and the school.

Nice to know the law however depending which LA you are with they can be unlawful even with an EHCP and provide nothing unless your doing PAP / JR. So you have to fight the battles which are important to both of you sometimes what the La is offering isn’t even worth fighting for.

Make sure your child is well and not depressed/ struggling massively.

Thewashingisoutside I completely agree, it’s a real issue

My dd went back to school and had 100% attendance after being out with EBSA for 2 years. I didn't remove a thing tbh from memory I bought her an Ipad, a sewing machine and a dog as well as other stuff whilst she was out. None of it kept her at home as she left it all quite happily once she was in a school that could meet her needs.
You probably need to make a EHC needs assessment request using template letter on IPSEA. I would, if at all possible look into funding an independent ed psych assessment to support your request.

Thanks so much for everyon'es replies. I had the call today from social services, they asked if I wanted an assessment to which I said not at the moment as I have got some therapy for her for a month and want to see if that works, she was great really understanding.

Good that the call went well.

What do you want for your child? As PP says: Why don’t you home educate considering they’re at home?

Do you want them in a special school?

So home educating is a minefield for me, purely because she is 11 in June so from September onwards it will be high school level, it is something I want to look into though,

I hope you don't find this comment goady as I know working parents also struggle with this but...

Are children mainly able to 'avoid school' because there's a parent at home and therefore staying at home is an option?

No.

No I think you’ll find the majority have jobs they have had to quit/been sacked from because of it.

You’re not strictly correct about the legalities around attendance registers.

365. Schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical
evidence to support illness absences. Schools should only request reasonable medical evidence in cases where they need clarification to accurately record absence in the attendance register – i.e. making a decision that code I is the absence code that accurately describes the reason the pupil is not in school for the session in question. In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence.
366. Where medical evidence is deemed necessary, schools should not be rigid about the form of evidence requested and should speak to the family about what evidence is available. Schools should be mindful that requesting additional medical evidence unnecessarily places pressure on health professionals, their staff and their appointment system, particularly if the illness is one that does not require treatment by a health professional. Where a parent cannot provide evidence in the form requested but can provide other evidence, schools should take this into account. Where a parent cannot provide any written evidence the school should have a conversation with the parent and pupil, if appropriate, which may in itself serve as the necessary evidence

It could be that the school is requesting further evidence of the reason for absence. They are perfectly justified in doing so. It’s a very dangerous assumption that schools should just automatically accept a parent’s say-so for why a child is absent.
That being said, from a safeguarding position I believe home visits on a weekly basis should be implemented in cases of prolonged absences.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf

Pasta4Dinner this happened to me. Im a single mum of 4 three of whom go to school fine, I was working recently in a well paid very good job, but with my dd at home I had to quit it. If I hadn't of quit I was told that I was on the path to being dismissed purely because I couldn't fulfil my hours and office hours. It was hard but DD comes first