Neurodivergent Pupils’ School Distress and Attendance Difficulties: Staff Insights and Experiences

Increasing numbers of children and young people (CYP) are experiencing attendance difficulties in the UK. A crucial underpinning reason for the increase is school distress; where CYP experience such high levels of distress and anxiety that they cannot attend. Evidence suggests that neurodivergent CYP are disproportionately experiencing school distress and attendance difficulties. Previous research has predominantly focused on insights from parents, and sometimes CYP. Insights from staff working with neurodivergent CYP experiencing school distress and attendance difficulties are relatively lacking. Therefore, online semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 members of school staff. Three themes were constructed via reflexive thematic analysis: (1) A complex picture of needs and challenges; (2) Staff are only human; and (3) An education system where nobody is thriving. The findings highlighted that the school environment was challenging for neurodivergent pupils in many ways. Furthermore, staff could not sufficiently support CYP within the under-resourced education system and called for a more inclusive and sustainable system. The findings, alongside other studies, provide evidence to shift the focus away from child- and family-level factors, and instead consider the school- and system-level factors underpinning neurodivergent pupils’ school distress and attendance difficulties. We must not only consider these factors, however, but consider the complex, multifaceted interactions between them.