Fiona McFarlane

Director for Scotland at Place2Be

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 amongst the highest rates of persistent absence, with almost a third of pupils missing 10% of school or more. In secondary schools, 40% of children and young people in Scotland are persistently absent – hitting 50% in one local authority.

There is an obvious, and evidenced, impact on the achievement and attainment of pupils when they’re not attending school.¹ Research suggests that school absence can also lead to young people earning less in the future,² and can even have as much of a negative impact on life expectancy as smoking or heavy drinking.³

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 for many.⁴ Indeed, stress, anxiety or fear about attending school is now often referred to as Emotionally-Based School Avoidance (EBSA) and is a growing concern for schools. 

Prevention is clearly key: we know that school-based one-to-one counselling has the potential to reduce persistent absence.⁵ But what about when the young person has already disengaged with school?

One solution is community-based counselling, like the targeted service we’ve been delivering in two local authorities in Scotland, delivering 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 outside of the school, 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 CBT-informed therapies. Crucially, they also support parents and carers to better understand the young person’s difficulties and how they can support them, as well as standalone support for parents where the young person did not wish to engage with the service.

We recognise that it takes a whole systems 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 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. That’s why we’ve built partnerships with other local organisations that can provide practical family support, academic support, and parental mental health support.

While these projects have been small in scope, the impact on the young people we have worked with has been notable. Our counsellors have helped them meet their own goals: to get back to attending school, to another positive destination, or to simply reconnecting with friends and enjoying life.

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.

Learn more about our work in Scotland

Learn more about our school services

References

¹ Improving Attendance: Understanding the Issues, Education Scotland, 2023: https://education.gov.scot/media/3kdenpq4/improving-attendance-understanding-the-issues-101123-pw.pdf

² The impact of school absence on lifetime earnings, Department for Education, 2025: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-impact-of-school-absence-on-lifetime-earnings 

³ Effects of education on adult mortality: a global systematic review and meta-analysis, IHME-CHAIN Collaborators, 2024: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00306-7/fulltext

⁴ Education Scotland, 2023: https://education.gov.scot/media/3kdenpq4/improving-attendance-understanding-the-issues-101123-pw.pdf and The relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16, Department for Education, 2025: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/681b676c9ef97b58cce3e518/The_relationship_ between_mental_ill_health_and_absence_in_students_aged_13_to_16.pdf

⁵ One-to-one counselling and school attendance in the UK, Saxton et al, 2024: https://adc.bmj.com/content/109/11/905