Functional Behaviour Assessment for Schools
When a pupil's behaviour is putting their placement at risk, a functional behaviour assessment works out why it is happening. It works out what the behaviour achieves for the pupil, and what to teach instead.
What an FBA actually is
Behaviour that looks unpredictable almost never is. It happens because it works.
Every behaviour does something for the person doing it. It gets them something they want, gets them out of something they would rather avoid, or changes something about the situation they are in. A functional behaviour assessment is the process of working out which, using interviews with the people who know the pupil, direct observation in the settings where the behaviour happens, and structured rating scales. Once the function is clear, the pupil can be taught a better way of achieving the same thing, and the situations around them can be changed so the old way stops being necessary.
Without knowing the function, a plan is a well-meaning guess. Any improvement tends to be temporary, because nothing has changed about why the behaviour was happening in the first place.
Where this sits in the guidance
Schools are already asked to understand behaviour before responding to it, which is what an FBA achieves.
The SEND Code of Practice asks schools to work through a graduated approach: assess, plan, do, review. A functional behaviour assessment is the assess stage done properly, so that everything after it is built on evidence rather than assumption.
The DfE's Behaviour in Schools advice is clear that where behaviour is a concern for a pupil with SEND, schools should look at the underlying factors and check whether the right provision is in place, rather than responding to the behaviour on its own. That is precisely the question an FBA answers.
NICE guideline NG11 covers children and young people with a learning disability whose behaviour challenges. It recommends a phased approach aimed at gaining a functional understanding of why the behaviour is happening, identifying the factors that provoke and maintain it, and developing a behaviour support plan as soon as possible. It also asks assessors to consider the role that the service, the staff and the family play in maintaining the behaviour, which is often the most useful and least comfortable part of the picture.
Why bring in a behaviour analyst
Schools do a great deal of this work already, and often very well. What we add is the specialist assessment behind it.
Postgraduate training in functional assessment. A behaviour analyst holds a masters degree in behaviour analysis and has completed a period of supervised clinical practice before being able to register as a certified practitioner. Functional assessment is a large part of what that training covers: how to gather information systematically, which validated tools to use, and how to analyse what the information actually shows rather than what everyone expects it to show.
A fresh pair of eyes. Staff who see a pupil every day are close to the situation, and the patterns that matter can be very hard to spot from within it. In the example further down this page, the school's responses were entirely reasonable, and were part of what was keeping the behaviour going. That can be difficult to see when you are the one responding day-to-day.
It is what the frameworks expect. The UK Positive Behavioural Support Competence Framework separates the people who deliver support from those working in a clinical capacity, who take responsibility for the assessment, for designing the behaviour support plan, and for overseeing how it is put in place. That clinical role is the one we hold.
Registered and accountable. Our practitioners are registered with the UK Society for Behaviour Analysis. Registration is not a one-off qualification. Registrants work to a defined competence framework covering assessment, intervention design, ethics and supervision, and have to evidence continuing professional development every year to stay on the register.
How it works
Referral conversation
A call with no obligation, to talk through what you are seeing, what has already been tried, and whether a functional behaviour assessment is the right next step for this pupil.
Recording starts in school
We send data sheets straight away, so staff can begin recording the behaviours of concern, including how often they happen and at what times of day. This gives us a picture of the behaviour over time.
Paperwork review
The school sends over the EHCP, any previous assessments and reports, and any plans already in place. We review all of it before visiting.
Visit, interviews and observation
We come into the setting to observe the pupil directly, looking at the environment and the approaches already being used as well as at the pupil. While we are there we carry out structured functional assessment interviews with the staff who work with them, and arrange meetings with parents where that is useful.
Analysis
The data, interviews and observations are brought together to identify what the behaviour is achieving for the pupil, and which skills are missing that would make it unnecessary.
Written report and plan
A report setting out what was found, and a behaviour support plan covering prevention, what to teach, and how staff should respond. Both are completed within four weeks of the assessment visit.
Handover and staff training
A detailed handover meeting covering what we found and what we recommend, with resources tailored to the pupil and the setting, including visual supports and tracking sheets. Strategies can be demonstrated where that helps. Training on functional behaviour approaches is available for the wider staff team.
Review
We remain available for follow-up questions and to look at the data with you. Follow-up visits are optional and recommended, to monitor whether the strategies are working and suggest what to change if they are not.
What the school receives
Assessment report
A written account of what was found and why, covering the physical, social and demand environments, what each behaviour looks like, how often it happens and what it achieves. Written to be used by staff, not filed.
Behaviour support plan
The strategies themselves, written with staff in mind. What to change to prevent difficulties arising, what to teach the pupil instead, and how staff should respond when things do go wrong. Short-term and long-term goals are set as skills to build, rather than behaviours to stop, prioritising positive and preventative approaches.
Resources and recording
Visual supports and step-by-step teaching guides for the skills in the plan, and simple data sheets so staff can see whether it is working rather than relying on impressions.
Case study: functional behaviour assessment in practice
Anonymised, with identifying details changed.
A special school asked us to look at a primary-aged pupil. Her behaviour was happening more or less continuously through the day, at school and at home. It included aggression towards staff and peers, throwing and damaging property, spitting, and leaving the classroom without permission.
The staff around her were experienced and were already doing sensible things. They used visual supports. They repeated instructions calmly. They reminded her of the class rules. None of it was making much difference, and her placement was becoming difficult to sustain.
Data sheets went out to the staff team first, so recording could begin while we reviewed her EHCP, previous reports and the plans already in place. We then interviewed her teacher, her teaching assistants and her parents, completed structured rating scales, and observed her directly at school and at home. The crucial part of the assessment was the hands-on approach, seeing the pupil directly, observing the behaviours and the impact these were having, and centring the assessment around the experiences of those who knew her best.
What the assessment found. The behaviour was doing two things for her, or serving two functions. It removed whatever she had been asked to do (escape), and it gained her movement and space (tangible). What made this clear was that it happened even when the instruction was to do something she enjoyed. The difficulty was not the task, but being told what to do.
This mattered because of what usually followed. When the aggression happened, demands were withdrawn and she was given room to move. Everyone was responding calmly and reasonably. Without anyone intending it, those responses were teaching her that the behaviour worked.
After reviewing our assessment findings and writing up our report, we put a plan together. The assessment had confirmed something staff already sensed, that difficulties were far more frequent with adults she knew less well, so rather than starting with instructions, the plan began with pairing. Adults spent time with her doing things she genuinely enjoyed, with nothing asked of her in return, until their presence predicted something good rather than a demand. This is a step that is easy to skip, and it is usually the reason later steps fail. A child will not follow an instruction from an adult whose arrival has come to mean something stressful.
Once that was established, she was taught to follow instructions to do things she already wanted to do. Being directed became associated with something positive rather than something unpleasant. She was also taught to ask for what she wanted. Communicating a want, and being answered, reduces frustration and gives a child some control over their day. Many children need specific and repeated opportunities for that to become fluent for them, so we worked with staff to identify the points in the school day where those opportunities could be increased. Tolerating a short delay, cooperating with routines and completing a task independently were set as longer-term goals, to be built once those foundations were in place.
The plan went to her staff team with teaching guides and recording sheets so they could run it, and we remained available for follow-up questions. Staff later reported that she was noticeably more settled and was listening well. What made the plan work was taking the time to find out what the behaviour was for before deciding what to do about it.
Timescales and cost
A full functional behaviour assessment starts at £700.
Follow-up visits from £100, depending on location.
Discuss a pupil
Tell us about the pupil and the setting, and we'll discuss whether an FBA is the right next step. We respond to enquiries within two working days.