Autism at Manchester attendance special

School attendance and neurodivergent young people

Since COVID-19 school absence has become an increasing concern for schools, parents and young people themselves. However, for many neurodivergent young people maintaining regular school attendance was a challenge before COVID-19 and the pandemic only served to exacerbate these difficulties further. DfE statistic indicate 31% of autistic children are persistently absent (DfE, 2021) and in a survey completed by 486 parents of autistic children prior to COVID-19 school refusal was the reason given for 43% of school absences (Totsika et al., 2020). Co-occurring medical needs can contribute to higher rates of non-attendance among neurodiverse young people, these might be medical conditions but also mental health needs. Many neurodiverse young people experience anxiety and school factors such as teachers not understanding young people’s needs, sensory environments or bullying can increase anxiety about attending school. These are important issues to address so that all young people can engage with education and succeed.

What are we doing?

The Doctorate in Educational Psychology, through its school attendance research strand is linking up with groups who are keen to improve attendance for young people. Currently we are working with:

The Barriers to Education Project

The Barriers to Education Project was initially set up by the team at Spectrum Gaming (a Manchester based autistic-led charity) working with autistic young people and their families. Members of Spectrum Gaming highlighted concerns that current school attendance guidance was not meeting the needs of neurodivergent young people. The project team has expanded to include professionals and national experts alongside neurodiverse young people and their families. The group are currently building a toolkit and website for families and professionals. The core principles of this work recognise that young people want to do well and to support this, the right support needs to be in place at the right time. The group has drawn upon the research evidence to develop the WARMTH framework which is designed to reduce barriers to education:

Wellbeing first

Affirming practice

Relational approach

Mutual Support and partnership

Timely Response

Holistic Support

Feedback on the model through extremely well attended webinars run by the project team has been overwhelmingly positive and shaped the model’s ongoing development. The website is due to launch in January 2025 and will include sections for parents, school staff and young people.

For further information on Padlet.

Trainee EP attendance research group

This project group is working with a range of commissioners across the NW to develop and carry out research which aims to address the attendance challenges faced by young people and their families. Given the difficulties often experienced by neurodiverse young people in relation to school attendance this is an important area of research within the group.

Research to date has explored:

• Understanding the perspectives of young people who are persistently absent (Corcoran & Kelly, 2022) https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12577.
  This review included many young people’s views, including neurodiverse young people and found that anxiety about attending school was often a consequence of negative school experiences rather than the cause of school non-attendance.
• Parents of autistic children’s motivations for and experiences of home educating their child (O’Hagan et al., 2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2020.101711.
  For many parents whose views were included in this review, home education was a positive experience leading to good social and academic outcomes for their child.
• Autistic young people’s experiences of anxiety (Neilson & Bond, 2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2023.102274.
  Studies included in this review highlighted that autistic young people’s lived experiences of anxiety were qualitatively different from parent’s perspectives and there needs to be greater consideration of individual cognitive and emotional dimensions and support focused on managing environments.

• Autistic girls’ experiences of making a successful return to school after a period of non-attendance (O’Hagan et al., 2022) https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2022.2049378
  Trusting relationships with pupils and peers and developing a sense of school belonging were key factors underpinning a successful return to mainstream school.
• The lived experiences of effective support for autistic young people who had experienced extended school non-attendance (Neilson & Bond, 2023)https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12630.
  This highlighted the importance of working with young people at their pace, in a safe environment when they are returning to school after extended absence.

Current projects are looking at co-production of a resource to support parents of autistic children who are struggling with school attendance and understanding the characteristics of effective alternative education approaches for autistic young people.

The N8 Research Partnership

The N8 is a collaboration between eight of the most research-intensive universities in the North of England and stakeholders across the region, aimed at addressing issues affecting people in the North. The Child of the North is a collaboration with the Centre for Young Lives to produce a series of reports focusing on key issues affecting the lives of children and young people in the North of England. Reports produced so far include Autism and SEND and a report on school attendance will be released in September 2024. The reports have focused on examples of innovative practice taking place in our region and the attendance report will be focusing on the Barriers to Education Project, approaches for supporting severely absent young people and case studies of schools who have worked to create more inclusive learning environments for all young people.