Half of truants stay with parents

More than 12,000 school children were found to be playing truant during a month of sweeps by police and education officials - and half were in the company of their parents.

The shocking new figures have emerged from the first government-funded blitz on truancy which was carried out during May.

It covered 34 local authority areas with the worst attendance records, including a number of London boroughs.

Excuses given for absence from school included one boy who said he had a spot and was afraid other children would call him names. Another said he did not like the colour of the school uniform and one "did not like Mondays".

One said their pet hamster had died and in another case, a parent said her child had been kept off school to buy a pair of shoes.

One in five of the pupils were returned immediately to school. All of their parents have been contacted by educational welfare officers and warned that future failure to ensure their children attend school could result in a fine or even imprisonment.

Last month, Patricia Amos spent two weeks in Holloway prison for allowing her two daughters to skip school in Banbury, Oxfordshire - the first time a parent was sent to jail because their children failed to attend school.

Earlier this month, a couple from Sydenham in south-east London were fined £4,000 for condoning their daughter's truancy.

The sweeps, carried out in shopping centres and housing estates, were part of a £66 million Government initiative to improve pupil behaviour and attendance which will also see police officers patrolling up to 100 of the toughest schools in an effort to crack down on youth crime.

Up to now, the Government has failed to make any impact on truancy, despite a pledge to reduce it by a third. Latest figures show that unauthorised absence from school has hardly changed over the last five years, with 50,000 children estimated to skip school each day and a million halfdays lost each year.

But senior sources said today the figures from the sweeps showed that concerted action had an impact.

Head teachers reported an improvement in attendance after Patricia Amos's imprisonment and senior sources said that in the final week of the latest month of sweeps, the number of truants found was down by between a half and a third.

The source said: "People criticised the Government for taking tough measures to deal with truancy, but they are delivering results. These sweeps, combined with the message that parents can now go to prison if their children do not attend school, are having an effect."

More sweeps are planned from the start of the new term in September, when the Government also plans a new campaign - including radio advertisements and letters to parents - aimed particularly at parentally condoned truancy.

A senior source said: "Children need boundaries. They need to understand that not going to school when they should is unacceptable behaviour.

"If parents haven't got the message yet - that it is their job to ensure their children attend school - they should start listening."

Truant worked as hospital cleaner