As children start to head back to school after the summer break, a growing number will be struggling to get past the school gates.
Absence rates have been a cause for concern across the UK, particularly since Covid. But in Scotland we’ve seen among the highest rates of persistent absence, with almost a third of pupils missing 10 per cent of school or more. In secondary schools, 40 per cent of children and young people in Scotland are persistently absent - hitting 50 per cent in one local authority.
There is an obvious and evidenced impact on the achievement and attainment of pupils when they’re not attending school. Research suggests that school absence can also lead to young people earning less in the future and it can even have as much of a negative impact on life expectancy as smoking or heavy drinking.
Emotionally based school avoidance
There are, of course, many reasons why children and young people struggle to attend school, but we’re seeing an increasing recognition that mental health can be a factor. Indeed, stress, anxiety or fear about attending school is now often referred to as emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), and it is a growing concern.
Prevention is clearly key: we know that school-based, one-to-one counselling has the potential to reduce persistent absence. But what about when the young person has already disengaged?
Counselling in the community
One solution is community-based counselling, like the targeted service that we’ve been delivering in two local authorities in Scotland. This provides therapeutic support in the community for young people who are disengaged or at risk of disengaging from school.
Referrals were made from secondary schools, and our peripatetic counsellors met with the young person in settings beyond the school gates, such as community centres or libraries, or in the school via a discreet entrance.
The counsellor supports the young person through one-to-one counselling, including the use of therapies informed by cognitive behavioural therapy. Crucially, they also support parents and carers to better understand the young person’s difficulties and how they can help them, and they offer support for parents when the young person does not wish to engage with the service.
‘Just one part of the jigsaw’
We recognise that it takes a whole-system approach to improve attendance. That’s why we also work with school staff through discussions and reflective sessions to enable a better understanding of EBSA, and help them to plan for a return to school, including how to adapt the school environment for the young person.
Mental health support is, of course, just one part of the jigsaw. We’ve built partnerships with other local organisations that can provide practical family support, academic support and parental mental health support.
While these projects - one that ran in Dundee in 2024-25 and another that has been running in South Ayrshire since 2022 - have been small in scope, the impact on the young people we have worked with has been notable. Our counsellors have helped them to meet their own goals: to get back to school or move on to another positive destination, or to simply reconnect with friends and start enjoying life again.
We think this model is a key part of the solution to falling school attendance, alongside an increase in the availability of school-based counselling in primary schools to help prevent these issues arising in the first place. The alternative, for far too many children, is unachieved academic potential and reduced life chances.
Whether they’re in school or out, no child should face mental health issues alone - we’re working to make that a reality.
Fiona McFarlane is director for Scotland at mental health charity Place2Be
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