The SEND Parent Survival Toolkit
Understanding Children Through the Lens of Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
By E. L. Mitchell FA4C
The flagship title in The SEND Parent Survival Toolkit helps parents, carers, educators and professionals understand the whole child across home, education, health and care. It brings compassionate explanation, lived experience and practical reflection together.
Available now in paperback, Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
Understanding what sits beneath attendance
Attendance figures show only part of a child’s experience. Understanding the whole 24-hour child means listening to what happens before school, during the day, at home and through the night.
It also means recognising the effect on family life: disrupted routines, work, sleep, relationships and the effort of seeking help. Delays in decisions or support leave families managing these pressures day after day.
The handbook invites readers to ask: what does this child need us to understand, and what could make everyday life more manageable now?
For families and professionals together
The handbook has been written for the people trying to understand and support a child experiencing EBSA.
- Parents and carers navigating disrupted attendance, uncertainty and pressure.
- Teachers, SENCOs and education staff seeking compassionate, practical ways to respond.
- Health, care and support professionals working alongside children and families.
Rather than reinforcing an “us and them” narrative, the handbook brings the child, parent and professional perspectives into the same conversation.
Every perspective matters.
What readers will find inside
Across a series of structured frameworks, the handbook combines clear teaching with reflection, lived experience and practical tools.
- Accessible explanations of EBSA, emotional safety, behaviour as communication, nervous-system capacity, belonging, relationships and recovery.
- Parent and professional reflections showing how the same experience can be understood from different perspectives.
- ELM Insights and ELM Philosophy sections that turn complex ideas into compassionate, usable understanding.
- Practical resources, illustrations, case examples and guided reflection.
- Time to Reflect and Growing Understanding at the end of every framework.
The handbook does not offer a single formula or promise a quick fix. It helps readers notice patterns, ask better questions and respond to the whole child.
Understanding before intervention.
AVAILABLE NOW • The flagship title in The SEND Parent Survival Toolkit
Understanding EBSA
Understanding children through the lens of emotionally based school avoidance
A practical, compassionate and evidence-informed handbook that helps parents, carers, educators and professionals move beyond attendance and behaviour to understand emotional safety, nervous-system capacity, belonging, relationships and recovery through the ELM Frameworks™.