Emotionally-Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is rising across the UK and internationally, placing increasing pressure on schools, services, and families. This three-hour online event explores what we currently know about EBSA, and how thinking, language, and responses have evolved in recent years. The session will examine the up-to-date research landscape, emerging international developments, and recovery-oriented approaches grounded in complex real-world cases. Designed for experienced professionals, this event will support proportionate, evidence-informed, and system-aware responses to EBSA.
Booking
Sign up at this link or on the Book Now button at the top of the screen, and complete the form that follows. You’ll then receive an email confirmation and a link to the webinar, plus we’ll send you a calendar reminder nearer the time. Delegates will have exclusive access to recordings for 90 days after the event, together with slides. Plus you will get a personalised CPD/CME certificate via email.
- ACAMH Members MUST login to book onto the webinar in order to access this webinar and get a CPD/CME certificate
- Non-members this is a great time to join ACAMH, take a look at what we have to offer, and make the saving on these sessions
EARLY BIRD £49 (until 23/04/26, then £69) for ACAMH Members (Print, Online, Concession) Join now and save
EARLY BIRD £69 (until 23/04/26, then £89) ACAMH Learn Account holders
EARLY BIRD £69 (until 23/04/26, then £89) Non Members
£10 ACAMH Undergraduate/Postgraduate Members
LIC Members free
Don’t forget as a charity any surplus made is reinvested back as we work to our vision of ‘Sharing best evidence, improving practice’, and our mission to ‘Improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 0-25’.
About the session
Professor Dr. Caroline Bond – School attendance – the research evidence and potential implications for CAMHS
This presentation will consider the ‘wicked problem’ of school attendance in the post Covid landscape. Given the changing attendance context, the presentation will consider pre-Covid trends and more recent shifts in the way school attendance is perceived and the risk factors associated with school absence. The challenges of categorising attendance difficulties will be considered, particularly in relation to emotionally based school avoidance. The response to intervention model for conceptualising school attendance interventions will be used as a structure to describe interventions at different tiers and the research evidence to support them. Potential implications for CAMHS practitioners will be discussed.
Learning outcomes
- To understand the current attendance context
- To understand the complexities of defining school attendance difficulties
- To understand how a tiered approach can provide a framework for intervening in school attendance
- To consider how CAMHS practitioners can support school attendance in their local area
Dr. Jerricah Holder – When Disconnection Becomes Deeply Rooted – Using Moving From Recovery to Rediscovery Model to rebuild trust and hope for children no longer attending school.
Through this presentation, focuses on children and families experiencing entrenched school avoidance and extended non-attendance, often where children have been out of school for many years. Emphasising the need to prioritise mental health and wellbeing, she introduces her Moving from Recovery to Rediscovery model. This approach supports children through phases of respite and recovery, rebuilding the emotional foundations needed for future engagement. From this place of safety, children can be gently supported to rediscover confidence, curiosity, and connection with the wider world, including education. The perspectives of children and families are integrated throughout, with video reflections sharing their lived experiences.
Learning outcomes
- Understand the complex emotional, psychological, and systemic factors contributing to entrenched school avoidance and prolonged non-attendance.
- Recognise the importance of prioritising children’s mental health and wellbeing as a foundation for re-engagement with education.
- Apply the key principles of the Moving from Recovery to Rediscovery model to support children experiencing Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA).
- Reflect on child and family perspectives to inform compassionate, trauma-aware, and sustainable approaches to supporting school attendance.
Who should attend
Primary audience; Education Professionals (Classroom teachers, SENCOs, Educational Psychologists, Specialist teachers), Clinicians (Clinical Psychologists, CAMHS practitioners, ADHD specialists, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists, CBT therapists working with ADHD. This event may also be of interest if you are; Medical (Paediatricians), Research, and systems professionals.
Programme
2:00pm Professor Dr. Caroline Bond – School attendance – the research evidence and potential implications for CAMHS
2:45pm Q&A
2:55pm Kathryn Lester – Presentation
3:40pm Q&A
3:50pm Break
4:05pm Dr. Jerricah Holder – When Disconnection Becomes Deeply Rooted – Using Moving From Recovery to Rediscovery Model to rebuild trust and hope for children no longer attending school.
4:50pm Q&A with Jerricah Holder
5:00pm Close
About the speakers
Professor Dr. Caroline Bond was formerly a primary school teacher and specialist educational psychologist working on an autism diagnostic team. She currently trains educational psychologists on the Doctorate in Educational Psychology (DECP) programme at the University of Manchester. Her research primarily focuses on research informed professional practice. She has developed the DECP programme attendance strand of research. Caroline also recently led the practitioner and academic collaboration to produced the N8 attendance report, which emphasised the importance of local collaborative solutions to school absence.
Dr. Jerricah Holder is an experienced Educational Psychologist who is passionate about the development of creative resources to empower children to have their voice heard. She has a specialism in supporting children who experience barriers in their educational attendance, and frequently presents at national conferences and trains other psychology services on Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Jerricah promotes a more compassionate and child-centred approach to understanding and addressing barriers to attendance and school wellbeing. Moving away from the term school refuser, EBSA recognises the emotional complexity of school avoidance behaviours and the inextricable link to the wider environmental context, with multi-layered barriers existing across the child, the home, and the school context.
Booking
Sign up at this link or on the Book Now button at the top of the screen, and complete the form that follows. You’ll then receive an email confirmation and a link to the webinar, plus we’ll send you a calendar reminder nearer the time. Delegates will have exclusive access to recordings for 90 days after the event, together with slides. Plus you will get a personalised CPD/CME certificate via email.
- ACAMH Members MUST login to book onto the webinar in order to access this webinar and get a CPD/CME certificate
- Non-members this is a great time to join ACAMH, take a look at what we have to offer, and make the saving on these sessions
EARLY BIRD £49 (until 23/04/26, then £69) for ACAMH Members (Print, Online, Concession) Join now and save
EARLY BIRD £69 (until 23/04/26, then £89) ACAMH Learn Account holders
EARLY BIRD £69 (until 23/04/26, then £89) Non Members
£10 ACAMH Undergraduate/Postgraduate Members
LIC Members free
Don’t forget as a charity any surplus made is reinvested back as we work to our vision of ‘Sharing best evidence, improving practice’, and our mission to ‘Improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 0-25’.