Truancy sweeps catches more kids

West Sussex education welfare officers and Sussex Police carried out a county-wide truancy initiative as part of their ongoing programme to maintain high levels of attendance and keep truancy down.

The teams visited Shoreham, Lancing, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Crawley, Chichester, Horsham, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill.

A total of 47 children were stopped, 20 of whom were with their parents. Twenty seven children were returned to school. Children stopped will have their school attendance monitored.

All parents of unaccompanied children who were stopped will receive a letter regarding their children's absence and further action may be taken on specific cases.

The types of areas visited included shopping parades, cemeteries, sports centres and arcades.

Inspector Russell Ternent, from Sussex Police youth safety team, said: "These statistics are disappointing, as we stopped more young people out of school this year (47) compared with last year (40).

Also, the number of young people returned to school increased from 10 this time last year to 27 this year."

Of the six children stopped in Shoreham and Lancing, one was accompanied by a parent and three were returned to school.