ELSA support is not behaviour management. It’s about increasing pupils’ self-awareness and helping them develop more successful coping strategies, which is proactive rather than reactive work. In the course of an intervention programme it may be appropriate to reflect on specific incidents, but this would depend upon the pupil being in a state of receptiveness. Sometimes ELSAs need to overcome defensiveness by using indirect methods such as therapeutic stories or puppet work that separate the ‘problem’ from the person. Day to day behaviour management should be kept outside of ELSA sessions, and not seen as the responsibility of the ELSA. Expecting an ELSA to deal with pupil misbehaviour creates role conflict. Most ELSAs also work as classroom assistants. In this role they may well need to deal with misbehaviour. However when they are delivering ELSA support it needs to be clear to the children that they are ‘wearing a different hat’, otherwise it may inhibit their relationship with the child or young person. Is it OK to deviate from my session plan if a pupil just needs to talk? This will depend on the age of the child and the context of the work. Normally ELSAs plan to meet with a pupil weekly. Half an hour to an hour is often a good length of time for a session. It allows time to In 2002, Sheila was appointed as a Senior Educational Psychologist with Hampshire County Council and the following year, began to train and supervise school-based ELSAs in Hampshire. With the support of the Hampshire Educational Psychology Service, this project was gradually extended across the whole county and throughout this time Sheila wrote various journal articles about the ELSA initiative and emotional literacy group work in schools.

ELSA Network – Emotional Literacy Support Assistants

In 1998, she completed an MSc in Educational Psychology and worked as an educational psychologist in Southampton for four years. During that time, she was asked to recruit, induct and manage five ELSAs who worked peripatetically for the Southampton Psychology Service. This initiative, launched in 2001, proved so popular with schools that some began to designate learning support assistants within their own staff to provide similar emotional support to pupils. If any of the above criteria do not apply, the role title of ELSA should not be used. Practising ELSAs are registered with local educational psychology service providers who deliver initial training and on-going professional supervision. Each service provider is responsible for maintaining a local register of practising ELSAs and will remove from their register any person no longer fulfilling the role requirements as detailed above.

ELSA training 

ELSAs attend ongoing group supervision (6 times a year,) to safeguard practice and develop their skills. provide continued further skills development. Schools with an ELSA This shows that the teacher has not understood the purpose of ELSA work! It is because the child has difficulties that they have been referred for ELSA intervention and without support the difficulties are likely to remain. You need the support of your SENCo or head teacher to help other staff understand that ELSA sessions are not rewarding bad behaviour. You are using these times to help the pupil reflect on their own behaviour and develop improved self-regulation. ELSA works best when everyone in school works together to create a more emotionally literate environment, which includes understanding the needs that underlie problematic behaviour. Merely punishing poor behaviour is unlikely to create long-term change. Some pupils needing ELSA intervention have poor engagement with the curriculum; missing a lesson for a period of time for ELSA support may result in greater engagement later. Sometimes I am asked to use my ELSA time to talk to a child about an incident of misbehaviour. Is this OK? Excellent ELSAs: Top Tips for Emotional Literacy Support Assistants by Sheila Burton (with Fiona Okai) are currently delivering bespoke programmes of support to individual pupils and sometimes small groups All ELSAs must be employed within an educational establishment (or other organisation that works with children and young people), and must receive line management support in the ELSA role. For reasons of accountability and safety, the ELSA Network will not endorse anyone to work independently or on a voluntary basis as an ELSA.

The People – ELSA Network The People – ELSA Network

An Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) is a trained, school based learning support assistant. Their role is to support the emotional wellbeing of pupils. They are trained by a team of Educational Psychologists and receive ongoing group supervision. Who ELSAs work with ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists, who apply their professional knowledge of children’s social and emotional development to areas of need experienced by pupils. They provide on-going professional supervision to help maintain high quality in the work undertaken by ELSAs, thereby helping to ensure safe practice for ELSAs and pupils alike. ELSAs work with children and young people either individually or in small groups and deliver bespoke interventions tailored to the presenting situation or need. The role of the ELSA is to develop children and young people's: Wow what a fascinating read this book is. I absolutely love it. I am currently an ELSA delivering to special needs students covering a variety of needs. I only received the book today and haven’t been able to put it down. Thank you.’ (Jan Roberts, ELSA)regularly attend half-termly supervision in small groups (with a recommended maximum of 8 ELSAs per group and duration of 2 hours per session), led by a qualified educational psychologist Most programmes would last for at least half a term and up to a term, depending on the child and circumstances. Typically they are likely to be 8-12 weeks long, as time is needed to build rapport and identify appropriate targets. If they go on longer than this it suggests that clear programme aims have not been set. It may also create over-dependency upon the ELSA. An ELSA programme is not expected to remediate every need a pupil has. It should have a specific focus. (See Programme and session planning in Good Practice section.) Once the programme aims have been met, it may be appropriate to move from a planned programme to some informal follow-up support while the youngster generalises new learning into the wider school context. This maintenance support would involve seeing the pupil less frequently or more briefly than during the programme itself. Some pupils may at a later date receive a further period of intervention with different programme aims. Where should ELSA work be done? The ELSA Network is managed by a steering group of educational psychologists with experience of establishing and managing ELSA training and supervision in local areas. They do this voluntarily in their own time. The current composition of the steering group is: Sheila Burton, who set up the original ELSA projects, graduated in Psychology in 1975, followed by completion of a PGCE. She worked in a special educational needs assessment nursery, before taking a break to have her three children. After this, she returned to a range of work, which included Portage home tutoring and special needs teaching, followed by SENCo posts in infant and junior schools. During this time, Sheila gained a Diploma in Advanced Educational Studies (SEN).

Area Directory – ELSA Network

The ELSA project was originally conceived as supporting individuals. Evaluation has shown that one of the key features of success is the quality of relationship that develops between ELSA and pupil. A one to one relationship will be qualitatively different from a group relationship as pupils are likely to be a little more guarded in front of peers. Also, ELSA programmes are intended to be bespoke for an individual’s specific needs. There is nevertheless a useful place for group work, for example when the focus of the intervention is developing social or friendship skills. In some cases a pupil may need some individual support before being placed in a group context to generalise the new skills they have been developing. ELSAs sometimes come under pressure from line managers in schools to do more group work because this is perceived to be a more economic use of time. This may however be a false economy since the impact from individual support may be much greater. Particular caution should be exercised about ELSAs leading anger management groups as the group dynamic may be especially challenging. This support is probably better focussed on individual pupil needs as it affords the opportunity to help the pupil reflect on personal underlying factors contributing to their own stress. Group work focussed on self-esteem, anxiety, loss and bereavement has also been successfully undertaken by some ELSAs. Children can be helped by knowing that some of their peers are facing similar challenges to their own. Published resources are expensive and I haven’t been given a budget. Can I do ELSA work without buying games, puppets and books? have attended (or are currently attending) a full ELSA training course delivered by one or more fully qualified educational psychologists (courses lasting a minimum of 5 but more usually 6 days) Who Emotional Literacy Support Assistants work with, ELSA training for professionals, and list of registered schools. Emotional Literacy Support Assistant

ELSAs are not counsellors and do not need to follow such strict confidentiality guidelines. The key point is respect for pupils. Liaison with selected other staff in school is usually beneficial. The question to ask is ‘how much do they need to know?’ A useful principle is to protect sensitive information that the pupil may have shared in confidence. It is respectful for an ELSA to ask a pupil if they may share information with others and then agree with them what will be said and to whom. Share generalities rather than sensitive personal details. The last thing an ELSA needs is to lose the pupil’s trust. The usual guidelines about safeguarding always apply of course. Do ELSAs mainly work with individuals or groups? She was appointed Area Principal Educational Psychologist for the western area of Hampshire in 2007 and went on to co-author ‘Emotional Wellbeing: an Introductory Handbook’ with Gillian Shotton. Published in 2008, it was written specifically as a handbook for ELSAs whilst also being relevant to a wider range of children’s workers. She has since helped other educational psychology services to implement ELSA in their local authority and continues to provide guidance and support to those interested in this work. Sheila published the ELSA Trainers’ Manual in 2009 to support the introduction of this approach more widely. The school line management system provides an element of protection for the pupils in terms of taking responsibility for safe practice. Being employed by the school provides safety for the ELSA in terms of personal support and insurance cover in case any complaint is ever pursued, e.g. by a parent.