School Truancy: Parents Jailed Every Two Weeks.

A parent is jailed for their child's truancy once a fortnight every school term in England and Wales, analysis of court statistics shows.

The first high-profile jailing of a truant's parent, Patricia Amos in 2002, sparked international controversy.

But since then, away from the headlines, penalties for parents have risen rapidly, with 10,000 prosecutions in England in 2007 - up 76% since 2000.

Despite the penalties, unauthorised absences are higher than in 1997.

The latest figures on tackling truancy and parental responsibility, published on Thursday, show that there has been a 41% annual increase in the number of parenting contracts to improve attendance in England.

The "fast-track" scheme to intervene with truancy problems has had 125,000 cases since 2004.

"It's important that we back schools and local authorities in using these powers to tackle problem absentees and bad behaviour, they rightly make parents take responsibility for their children," says England Children's Minister Delyth Morgan.

The Labour government has made a priority of tackling truancy, introducing increasingly severe penalties.

It set an ambitious target of cutting truancy by a third - but after more than a decade of crackdowns the most recent figures show that the rate of unauthorised absence in England is a third higher than in 1997.

In the years following the jailing of Patricia Amos, the rate of unauthorised absences increased rather than fell.

The government now says that it prefers to look at overall absence, including absences that have been authorised by schools, rather than to focus on truancy. On this measure, there has been an improvement.

The toughest response to truancy has been the threat of jailing - and up to 2007 there have been 133 parents imprisoned in England and Wales.

In Northern Ireland and Scotland, there have not been any jailings. The number of truancy fines imposed in Northern Ireland last year was 107.

Scotland has now stopped counting unauthorised absences as distinct from those authorised by schools.

Estelle Morris, education secretary when the tactic of jailing parents was first used in England, now has doubts about its value. At the time it was a sanction worth attempting, but she says: "I don't like it, I'm not at ease with it."

"If I was a minister now, I would want to look at the evidence - and if going to prison never worked or hardly ever worked, I would want to backtrack."

UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE IN ENGLAND

*63,000 pupils truant each day
*Most truants are girls, peak ages 15-16
*266,000 persistent truants in spring 2008
*Most persistent truants: Hull, Manchester
*Least persistent truants: Kensington, Bath
*10,400 prosecutions in 2007
*Unauthorised absences higher now than in 1997

Head teachers say that schools have "upped their game" over truancy and have much more sophisticated ways of monitoring attendance.

Malcolm Trobe, policy director for the ASCL head teachers' union, says that the lack of reduction in unauthorised absences shows that launching initiatives and passing legislation does not mean that change will happen on the ground.

"The government should be judged on its record for overall absence for the whole of the academic year, which has continued to fall over the past decade," says a spokesman for England's Department for Children, Schools and Families.

"Our message is getting across to schools and parents that every lesson counts for children."

The Conservatives supported the introduction of the jailing of truants' parents - and the party's schools spokesman, Nick Gibb, links truancy to behaviour problems.

"The inexorable rise in unauthorised absences in secondary schools is yet another sign of problems with discipline and behaviour in our education system that remains unresolved despite nearly a billion pounds of public money and a range of government initiatives," said Mr Gibb.

The Liberal Democrats' children's spokesman, David Laws, said it showed "the government's draconian strategy is failing".

"Truancy rates across the country remain sky-high. It's obvious that Labour's top-down approach has failed."

(By Sean Coughlan and James Westhead)
BBC News. Our thanks to BBC News bbc.co.uk/news for this news item.