Parents face £100 fines for truant children

Parents could face fines of up to £100 if their children persistently play truant from school, according to a consultation paper published today.

Guidance to ensure effective use of new powers to tackle criminal and anti-social behaviour, and truancy and misbehaviour in schools, has been published for consultation today.

The Home Office and Department for Education and Skills (DfES) consultation covers the implementation of parenting orders, contracts and penalty notices contained in the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill.

The penalty notices for parents would be imposed by Education Welfare Officers, headteachers and the police, as an alternative to prosecuting parents "where they do not take responsibility to secure their child's regular attendance at school".

Although primarily directed at parents who have previously failed to engage with supportive measures from the school or Education Welfare Services, in exceptional circumstances a fine could also be issued for a first offence. For example where a parent has taken their child on holiday in term-time without the school's permission or for parentally condoned absence identified in the course of a truancy sweep.

The Home Office draft guidance for practitioners such as youth offending teams, the courts and police sets out how they can make best use of parenting orders and contracts to tackle criminal conduct and/or anti-social behaviour. Separate DfES draft guidance for Local Education Authorities and schools covers parenting orders and contracts arising from truancy and exclusion from school, and penalty notices for truancy.

Under the Bill, practitioners will have more tools to deal with anti-social and criminal behaviour and truancy and unacceptable behaviour at school. Its provisions include parenting contracts to: help parents who have failed to secure their child's regular attendance at school; allow intervention to change a child's behaviour.

Also parenting orders for criminal or anti-social behaviour would enable the youth offending team to apply to the court for a parenting order where a child's behaviour is disrupting a community and where parents are not providing adequate supervision. They are intended for the small minority of parents who are unwilling to make the effort to improve their children's behaviour.

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said: "These new powers, which include parenting orders and contracts, are part of a package of measures in the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill which will reinforce parental responsibility for school attendance and behaviour in and outside school.

"We all have to play a part in tackling the anti-social behaviour that blights many of our communities and we all need to accept that our rights as citizens and parents come with responsibilities."

Data from the first three national truancy sweeps has indicated that 48,000 children were apprehended out of school by police and Education Welfare Officers - 16,000 were judged to be truanting and 8,000 of these were with their parents.

(gmcg)