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Dept for Education and Employment

Answer

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what recent discussions he has had with London education departments on truancy of school children within their boroughs. [131470] Jacqui Smith: We are in regular contact with many local education authorities in London about truancy, and the disruption it has on continuity of learning and the wider social and community costs. We have in place a range of measures to tackle truancy and improve attendance in our schools. Our Social Inclusion: Pupil Support Grant--worth over £500 million in three years--is providing practical support to local education authorities and schools. For 2000-01, London local education authorities will receive just over £26.5 million out of the grant to support local projects. Projects include electronic equipment to monitor attendance, additional staff to chase-up truants and reward schemes for acknowledging regular attendance. We are also encouraging local education authorities to undertake regular "Truancy Sweeps" in conjunction with the police. During these sweeps, truants are picked up from the streets during school hours and are taken back either to their schools or a designated place. Several effective sweeps have been undertaken in London with our support. In addition, I recently announced the pilot areas to test the devolvement of Education Welfare Services to secondary schools. The aim is to see whether attendance officers employed directly by schools would make it easier to deal with truancy quickly. Of the 15 local education authorities selected, five are from London-- Barnet, Camden, Haringey, Havering and Westminster. I am pleased that the pilot will be fully tested in London, in a variety of boroughs. We will be in regular contact with these authorities as the pilot progresses.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

354 c303-4W; 131470

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Attendance Finance Greater London Pupils Schools Truancy Education welfare officers

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk