Family Horizons: Empowering Families in the EBSA Journey

As Educational Psychologists, we've all unfortunately become very familiar with the growing challenge of Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) in schools. The complexities of EBSA need a holistic approach that extends beyond the school gates and into the home environment. While we've been incredibly pleased with the success of the EBSA Horizons courses for school staff and professionals to gain the tools to address EBSA, there's been an incredibly important piece missing from the puzzle.

‘Family Horizons’ is a course designed to complement our professional efforts by empowering parents and carers in their role supporting children experiencing emotional barriers to school attendance / EBSA. This course enables a shift towards a truly collaborative, systemic approach to EBSA – one that recognises families as equal partners in the journey towards improved attendance and overall wellbeing.

Understanding Family Horizons

Family Horizons is a carefully crafted, evidence-based resource that aligns with the principles we've come to value in EBSA Horizons. It is divided into five comprehensive chapters, each addressing a crucial aspect of the EBSA journey:

1. Understanding Your Child's School Attendance Challenges
2. Family Wellbeing and Self-Care
3. Supporting Your Child with Anxiety
4. Working with School
5. Moving from Recovery to Rediscovery

Each chapter is designed to build parents' knowledge, skills, and confidence progressively. The course uses a blend of informative content, reflective exercises, and practical strategies to ensure that learning translates into real-world application.

Child-Centred Approach: The course consistently emphasises the importance of understanding and responding to the child's individual needs and experiences.

Strengths-Based Framework: Rather than focusing solely on challenges, Family Horizons helps families identify and build upon existing strengths within their family system.

Collaborative Problem-Solving: The course promotes a partnership approach between families and schools, aligning with our professional goal of fostering productive home-school relationships.

Evidence-Informed Strategies: Drawing from established psychological theories and best practices, Family Horizons provides families with tools that complement our professional interventions.

Alignment with EBSA Horizons

What's particularly exciting about Family Horizons is how it integrates with the EBSA Horizons courses for school staff and professionals. This alignment creates a shared language and understanding across all stakeholders, facilitating more effective collaboration.

For instance, while we might be working with schools on implementing relational approaches, parents completing Family Horizons will be learning about the same concepts from their perspective and support this at home. This synchronisation of knowledge and approaches can significantly enhance the consistency and effectiveness of EBSA interventions. Family Horizons wonderfully enables a more cohesive, informed, and empowered support network around children experiencing EBSA.

Benefits for Parents and Carers

As EPs, we often witness the stress and uncertainty that EBSA can bring to families. Family Horizons addresses this head-on, offering a range of benefits that not only support parents but also enhance the effectiveness of our professional interventions.

Increased Understanding of EBSA and Its Impact

Family Horizons enables parents to better understand what may be happening for their child, and provides a comprehensive understanding of this complex issue. The course breaks down psychological concepts into accessible language, helping parents explore the underlying factors contributing to their child's struggles attending school. This knowledge base aligns with what we share in our consultations, reinforcing key messages and promoting a more nuanced understanding of EBSA within families.

Practical Strategies for Supporting Their Child

Perhaps most crucially, Family Horizons equips parents with a toolkit of practical, evidence-based strategies. These range from anxiety management techniques to approaches for gradual school reintegration. As EPs, we know the value of consistency in implementing interventions. By providing parents with these tools, we're extending the reach of our support beyond the school environment and into the home, creating a more cohesive support system for the child.

Empowerment Through Knowledge and Shared Experiences

One of the most powerful aspects of Family Horizons is its ability to reduce feelings of isolation among parents. The course includes case studies, interviews and shared experiences from other families, normalising the challenges associated with EBSA. This sense of shared experience can be incredibly empowering, boosting parents' confidence in their ability to support their child effectively.

Building Resilience and Self-Care Skills

Importantly, Family Horizons doesn't just focus on the child – it also emphasises parental wellbeing. The course includes modules on self-care and building family resilience, acknowledging the toll that EBSA can take on the entire family unit. As professionals, we understand that parents who are well-supported are better equipped to support their children, making this aspect of the course particularly valuable.

Enhancing Collaboration Between Families and Professionals

One of the most exciting aspects of Family Horizons is its potential to transform the way families and professionals work together in addressing EBSA. This enhanced collaboration can lead to more effective interventions and better outcomes for children.

Creating a Common Language and Understanding

Family Horizons introduces parents to many of the same concepts and terminologies that we use as professionals. This shared language can significantly improve communication between families and schools. When parents understand terms like the 'anxiety ladder', it becomes easier for us to explain our strategies and recommendations, leading to better buy-in and implementation.

Facilitating More Productive Conversations and Interventions

Armed with the knowledge from Family Horizons, parents are better prepared to engage in meaningful discussions about their child's needs. They're more likely to ask informed questions to get them the level of information which is more important to them, and be more aware of different risk and resilience factors we can jointly support with. This level of engagement can lead to more tailored, effective interventions that take into account the full picture of a child's experiences both at home and at school.

Reducing Potential Tensions or Misunderstandings

EBSA situations can sometimes lead to tensions between families and schools, often stemming from misunderstandings or differing perspectives. Family Horizons helps bridge this gap by providing parents with insight into the school's perspective and how to feel confident advocating for themselves and their child; promoting a more empathetic, collaborative approach on both sides.

By fostering this enhanced collaboration, Family Horizons doesn't just support individual families – it contributes to creating a more cohesive, understanding educational community. As EPs, we're well-positioned to facilitate and champion this collaborative approach, using the shared knowledge base provided by Family Horizons as a foundation for more effective multi-agency working.

The Bigger Picture: A Local Authority-Wide Approach

As Educational Psychologists, we often strive and hope for systemic change that can benefit more children and young people than we could ever see in casework. The implementation of Family Horizons, alongside EBSA Horizons for professionals and school staff, presents an exciting opportunity to create a unified, authority-wide approach to EBSA.

Vision of Shared Understanding Across All Stakeholders

Imagine a local authority where every professional, teacher, and parent/carer shares a common empathetic understanding of EBSA. By rolling out Family Horizons alongside EBSA Horizons, we have been able to create a shared knowledge base that spans across homes, schools, and support services across whole Local Authorities. This shared understanding has led to more consistent, effective support for children experiencing EBSA.

While it's important to remain realistic, the potential impact of this unified approach on wellbeing (and attendance) is significant. When families, schools, and professionals are all working from the same playbook, interventions are likely to be more timely, consistent, and effective. Moreover, since this prioritises pupil wellbeing, we could well anticipate more general secondary improvements in academic performance, and social confidence and belonging.

Long-term Benefits for the Community and Education System

The benefits of this approach extend far beyond individual pupils. A local authority with a robust, unified approach to EBSA is likely to see:

• Reduced strain on specialist services as schools and families become more equipped to manage lower-level concerns
• Improved home-school relationships, benefiting all pupils, not just those experiencing EBSA
• Enhanced professional satisfaction as interventions become more effective and collaborative
• Potential cost savings in the long term as early intervention reduces the need for more intensive, costly support later on.

Summary

As we've explored, Family Horizons offers a multitude of benefits:

• Empowers parents with knowledge and practical strategies
• Creates a common language between families, schools, and professionals
• Enhances collaboration and reduces potential misunderstandings
• Contributes to a holistic, authority-wide approach to EBSA
• Complements and enhances our work as Educational Psychologists

If you’d like to know more about Family Horizons and how the resource could integrate into your existing support services for children and young people experiencing emotionally based barriers to attendance, please contact us at [email protected] to discuss further.