Strengthen Your Graduated Response Across Every School
EBSA Horizons is a two-year partnership that builds consistent, evidence-informed EBSA practice across your entire authority. Every school, every relevant professional service, and every family receives coordinated, role-appropriate training designed and delivered by practising Educational Psychologists.
The result is earlier identification, more confident school-level responses, fewer cases escalating to specialist services, and measurable improvement in attendance and wellbeing across the system.
10–20×
Return on investment
~20%
Absence reduction
96%
Rate training as impactful
Delivering Against Your Statutory Priorities
EBSA Horizons is designed to help you evidence implementation of the frameworks that shape inspection, DfE returns, and elected member scrutiny.
DfE Statutory Attendance Guidance
Working Together to Improve School Attendance requires a support-first approach. EBSA Horizons provides the training infrastructure to deliver this consistently across every school, with live data demonstrating implementation for DfE returns.
SEND and Inclusion White Paper 2026
The Inclusive Mainstream Fund provides a direct commissioning lever for building SEMH capacity. National Inclusion Standards and the shift from 'withdrawn to engaging' require schools to develop inclusive practice. EBSA Horizons delivers the workforce development that these reforms depend on, aligned with the £200m SEND CPD programme.
ILACS Framework (April 2026)
Updated inspection criteria examine how authorities support children at risk of poor attendance and how effectively the graduated response operates. Partnership-wide training data provides direct evidence for inspection conversations.
Ofsted School Inspection
Inspectors examine how schools address persistent absence and support vulnerable learners. Schools progressing through the EBSA Horizons training pathway hold structured evidence of a coordinated, support-first approach that can be presented during inspection.
The Financial Case
Earlier school-level response to EBSA reduces demand on specialist services, eases pressure on the High Needs Block, and generates measurable attendance improvements. The figures below are derived from verified attendance data analysed using difference-in-differences methodology with national and regional controls.
10–20×
Return on investment
Depending on authority size and how impact is measured. Estimates range from approximately 10:1 based on attendance gains alone, to 20:1 or higher when cost avoidance across EHCP applications, alternative provision placements, and specialist referrals is included.
10,000+
Additional pupil days per authority
Recovered annually across a typical partner authority through measurable improvements in attendance. Larger authorities with more schools see proportionally greater returns.
50%
Of schools making fewer referrals
Within the first year of the partnership, around half of schools report reduced need to refer to EHCP assessment or alternative provision. Each avoided placement saves upwards of £50,000 per year, compounding annually.
~20%
Illness absence reduction
The headline attendance finding, independently confirmed across partner authorities using difference-in-differences analysis with national and regional controls.
Across a typical partner authority, the per-unit investment works out at:
£306
per school
£13.50
per staff member trained
£6
per family reached
What Changes Across Your Authority
These are not individual CPD gains. When confidence, knowledge, and awareness shift by 23–44% across an entire trained workforce of over 2,000 school staff and 20+ professional services, this is system-level culture change.
Workforce confidence and practice
Staff confidence in identifying and supporting pupils with EBSA increases by 44% across the trained workforce (from 61 to 88 out of 100). Professional knowledge increases by 23%. Awareness and attitudes shift by 40%. These are measured through validated pre-post surveys and represent a collective transformation in how EBSA is understood across the system.
Heads of SEND · Principal EPs · Early Help Leads
Attendance and absence outcomes
Illness-coded absence reduces by approximately 20%, the headline finding confirmed across partner authorities through difference-in-differences analysis with national and regional controls. Effects emerge 10–12 weeks after training and strengthen over time. Impact data can be reported directly to the Corporate Parenting Board.
Attendance Leads · Virtual School Heads · Heads of SEND
Specialist service capacity
With school-level understanding of EBSA embedded across the system, fewer pupils reach the point where EP or CAMHS intervention is required. This frees specialist capacity for the most complex cases and improves the quality of referrals that do reach specialist services.
Principal EPs · Virtual School Heads · CAMHS commissioners
Family engagement and support
Family Horizons reaches parents and carers directly, providing a five-chapter programme that supports understanding and confidence at home. Families are reached through school distribution rather than clinical referral, improving access for those who may not engage with traditional services.
Early Help Leads · Supporting Families · Virtual School Heads
What a Partnership Looks Like in Practice
A Northwest Authority
This authority commissioned EBSA Horizons to strengthen its graduated response across all primary and secondary schools, alongside training for EP, Early Help, Virtual School, and attendance services. The partnership launched with a strategic alignment phase, followed by automated rollout across the authority.
Within 18 months, over 2,000 staff had completed training across three levels. The authority's primary schools moved into the top 3 nationally for persistent absence improvement, a shift from mid-table prior to the partnership. Illness-coded absence reduced significantly, and the improvement strengthened over time as more schools progressed through the training pathway.
Monthly steering group meetings with the psychology team ensured the partnership stayed aligned with the authority's wider SEND and attendance strategy. Impact data was used for elected member briefings, DfE returns, and Ofsted preparation.
Designed for the People Leading This Work
Whether you are leading on SEND, attendance, early help, or educational psychology, the partnership is structured to connect with your strategic priorities.
"Placeholder: testimonial from a Head of SEND or Director of Children's Services about how the partnership strengthened their graduated response and provided evidence for elected member and DfE reporting."
Head of SEND · Partner Local Authority
Discuss How This Would Work in Your Authority
Book a 30-minute conversation with our psychology team. We will share impact data from comparable authorities, walk through what realistic outcomes could look like for your context, and explore how the partnership would fit alongside your existing strategy.