Town praised for truancy crackdown

A new report has praised the town -- along with Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham -- for the effectiveness of a series of truancy sweeps.

The Streets Ahead National Initiative on Truancy Sweeps report said that school attendance in Bolton went up in the last academic year -- by 0.8 per cent to 91pc. Crime levels in the town dropped during the same period, according to the report.

And a separate police review found that Bolton's truancy teams stopped more youngsters than anywhere else in the country.

The teams have stopped 1,114 since the sweeps began in the town in May last year. Of those, 675 were not authorised to be absent from school. Education social workers and police officers have been working together to carry out the high-profile truancy sweeps. Any child suspected of playing truant has had a letter sent to their parents.

The truancy team also writes to the pupil's local education authority and his or her school attendance is then monitored for the next six weeks.

The Streets Ahead report stated that good media coverage ahead of the sweeps, clear briefings to schools and effective plans for dealing with truants had all contributed to the success of the scheme in Bolton.

Police and education leaders in Bolton have welcomed the report. Inspector Karan Lee, of Bolton Police, said that there had been a drop in crime during truancy sweeps.

She said: "The way I look at it, Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham are all cities, while Bolton is a little town in comparison.

"It is nice to be seen in that top band alongside those cities even though we are only a town."

Jean Kilgallen, Bolton's education social work team manager, said: "We are very pleased that this Government realises how important it is for children to attend school."

She said she had been concerned to discover that many children who were skipping school were with their parents. The truancy teams have carried out 29 sweeps so far, 12 in the town centre and 17 elsewhere in Bolton.