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Truancy

6. Mr. Siôn Simon (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab): What steps the Department is taking to tackle truancy. [217631]

7. Mr. David Amess (Southend, West) (Con): How much her Department has spent on anti-truancy initiatives since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [217632]

9. Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham) (Con): How much her Department has spent on anti-truancy initiatives since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [217635]

The Minister for School Standards (Mr. Stephen Twigg): Most funding for work on attendance is combined with funding for wider work on discipline, behaviour and exclusions. The Department has spent £11.5 million on measures dealing solely with attendance since 1997. Today we published new data on the maintained sector for the autumn term 2004, which show that overall absence in schools fell from 6.68 per cent. last year to 6.17 per cent. last term.

Mr. Simon: We have heard a lot of cheap opportunist point-scoring about truancy in recent weeks, yet all the anecdotal evidence from schools, the youth service and related agencies, and the police in my constituency shows that the worst culprits, and those causing the most trouble when not at school, are at school more than they used to be. Has the Department enough qualitative data not just on how many pupils are at school, but on who is and who is not at school, and on what pupils are doing when they are or are not at school?

Mr. Twigg: My hon. Friend is right to ask that. As I said, today we have published new data relating to last term. I have particular praise for schools in Birmingham, where there has been a significant fall in the number of absences. The figure is now 5.38 per cent., one of the lowest in the country for an urban area. That demonstrates the success of schools working together through the behaviour improvement programme, and the importance of not relying on statistics alone but ensuring that quality measures are in place.

Mr. Amess: A lot of money has been spent on these initiatives, for example sending parents to prison if their children play truant or giving secondary schools disincentives to retain truanting children, but I am not at all sure how successful they have been. Must not the Government now accept that an all-out concerted effort
 
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is needed to recruit and retain, and to encourage the women and men with the necessary special skills to persuade these young people to reconnect to formal education?

Mr. Twigg: I agree. That is why we have invested in more than 10,000 learning mentors, why the programme that we set out yesterday is so important to engaging and re-engaging more young people, and why we have record numbers of teachers and classroom assistants.I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will join me in congratulating Southend schools on a significant fall in truancy last term. The recent truancy sweeps in particular are having a real impact, which is showing in the figures.

Mr. Bercow: Given that in 2003–04 no fewer than 1,264,103 primary and secondary school pupils played truant, that that represented a 25 per cent. increase on 1997 and that the Government missed both their important public service agreement targets for reducing truancy, does the Minister not understand the concern that the £300,000 a day that Ministers have spent since 1997 has not been well spent? Is he not particularly ashamed of the appalling record in Edmonton, north London, which is very close to his constituency?

Mr. Twigg: What is important is that we are now given the figures in a far fuller and more sophisticated form. The position varies from one area to another. What I have announced today, however, is a very significant improvement. If we compare like with like, we see that there were 87,000 more pupils at school each day in the 2004 autumn term than during the equivalent period when we came to power.

I will happily work with the London borough of Enfield—Conservative-led—and my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) to ensure that Edmonton is part of the wider national improvement that we are announcing today.

David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire) (Lab/Co-op): It is good news that 60,000 fewer pupils, on average, are absent from school each day, but 450,000 still are. Two per cent. of the school population are responsible for 50 per cent. of all truancies. Is not much of that linked to parental attitude? A particular problem is that the system of authorised absences has been rather over-relaxed over the years. It can slip-slide into unauthorised absences, with all the social and economic consequences about which we have been hearing. What is being done to tackle that?

Mr. Twigg: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The big fall in absences over the last two years has consisted mostly of authorised absences. Schools that were authorising absences are now rightly taking a much tougher stance. He is also right to remind us that the evidence shows that very few pupils—about 2 per cent.—are responsible for about half the truancy. Engaging parents is important, but so is engaging such young people in the curriculum and in school activities. Yesterday's announcement will contribute to that.

Mr. Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich, West) (Lab/ Co-op): To continue the theme but to draw a distinction, in my constituency parentally condoned
 
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truancy seems to be a bigger problem than parentally condoned authorised absences, because traditional truancy has been mitigated by good work between the local authority and the police. What steps can be taken to develop strategies to deter parentally condoned truancy?

Mr. Twigg: As my hon. Friend will know, we have taken a number of steps in the past few years. The hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) referred to the extreme step of parents being sent to prison, but we have introduced a number of other measures, such as fast-track prosecutions and fixed penalty notices. Birmingham—just down the road from my hon. Friend's constituency—has been at the forefront in using fixed penalty notices. I am confident that in Birmingham, part of the reason for the significant improvement that I described earlier is the way in which schools and local authorities have engaged positively with parents in the process. However, authorities also have the sanction that ultimately, parents can be taken to court. That is working in Birmingham and in many other parts of the country as well.

Mr. Tim Collins (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (Con): Why, after eight years of a Labour Government is unauthorised absence—truancy—substantially worse; or is the answer in the question?

Mr. Twigg: I—[Interruption]—I am being encouraged to refer to the hon. Gentleman's truancy on Sunday from Granada, but I think that he had a very good excuse for that.

For many years pre-dating this Government, unauthorised absence stood at about 0.7 per cent., and it is acknowledged across the board that that is a very tough nut to crack. We want maximum attendance in schools and the hon. Gentleman must accept that we now have record levels of attendance. Indeed, today's new figures demonstrate that there was a substantial improvement in the last school term. That shows that the measures that we have taken are having an effect. Schools are not prepared to authorise absence that they might previously have authorised.

Mr. Collins: But does the Minister not keep coming back to the same point? The Government have done the easy bit, which is to reduce authorised absence, but they have demonstrably failed to reduce unauthorised absence, which is truancy. They have spent £885 million and they have been criticised by the National Audit Office. Should they not address some of the underlying causes of this problem? Since 1997, violence in schools has increased and drug use has doubled. Would not clearer signals from the Government about pupil behaviour and drug use actually help, instead of just constant talk?

Mr. Twigg: We have sent clear signals. The £885 million to which the hon. Gentleman referred is to support discipline and promote good behaviour and attendance in schools. It includes the provision of 10,000 learning mentors, who are making a real difference in terms of school standards and raising educational achievement. There are 1,000 learning
 
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support centres in schools and double the number of places in pupil referral units. We have not had just talk; serious action has been taken.

The James review says that the Conservatives would cut central support for dealing with behaviour issues and for special educational needs support from local education authorities, but schools need that back-up from LEAs in order to tackle behaviour. The Conservative proposals would make the situation worse.

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