Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Education Welfare Officers in partnership with the Caerphilly Neighbourhood Policing Team stopped 20 comprehensive school pupils recently, as part of an operation aimed at tackling truancy.
Officers patrolled Caerphilly over four days in October and November.
The parents of the school pupils who were seen have received letters highlighting the details of where and when their child was stopped. Those who were found to be truanting were also returned to school, while others were stopped in the company of a parent or guardian.
On the four days of the operation, local comprehensive schools reported that they had 144 unauthorised absences on their registers. This may include children who were sick and the parents/carers had not notified the schools, or those who were skipping lessons without their parents’ knowledge.
PC Phil Thomas from the Caerphilly Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “There are of course reasons why a child may not be in school, but we are reminding parents of their responsibility to ensure that their children are regularly attending school. We often find that those pupils who are truanting get up to no good and take part in anti-social behaviour. Our joint working with Caerphilly Council aims to prevent this from happening.”
Cabinet member for education and leisure, Cllr Phil Bevan said, “Truanting from school can have a significant detrimental impact on a young persons education as they can quickly fall behind with their class work and find it very difficult to catch up again.
“This, together with the anti-social behaviour that often occurs as a result of truancy means that we are very keen to put a stop to the very small minority of young people who feel it is acceptable to play truant from school.
“By working with our partners, we hope to put a stop to this and to encourage the young people to understand how their behaviour can affect others.”
The partnership between Caerphilly County Borough Council, the Caerphilly Neighbourhood Policing Team, local schools in Caerphilly and other agencies aims to ensure that all children experience the maximum benefit from the educational opportunities available to them.
It is hoped that the operation will increase attendance at school, reduce unauthorised absences and reduce anti-social behaviour rates. Future patrols will be carried out throughout 2010.
