A Call for Awareness and Support in Education

PANS and PANDAS are complex medical conditions that can cause sudden and significant changes in a child’s or young person’s emotional wellbeing, behaviour, and learning. Yet many children and young people still face delays in receiving appropriate support in schools, often due to limited awareness or uncertainty around how these conditions fit within existing assessment frameworks

A new article on edpsy.org.uk, PANS and PANDAS: Emerging Understandings explores how educational psychologists play a key role in recognising and responding to these conditions. It highlights the importance of collaborative informed approaches that take into account the medical nature of PANS and PANDAS, while also acknowledging the complexities of educational assessment.  

We are very grateful to Dr Dan O’Hare for supporting this conversation. Our recent attendance at the Festival of Educational Psychology also gave us the opportunity to speak with many educational psychologists, conversations that offered valuable insight into the current landscape, including the challenges and opportunities in supporting families living with PANS and PANDAS.  

If you are a parent/caregiver, please consider sharing this article with your child’s or young person’s SENCO, educational psychologist or wider professionals involved in their care. Raising awareness is a vital step.