Education Awareness

(Managed by Medway Council)

Every Child Matters outcomes met:

• staying safe

• enjoying and achieving

Unauthorised and authorised non-attendance figures were greater in Medway than the national average and it was felt imperative to address absence in order to improve attainment. A survey also showed that 60% of truants and permanently excluded pupils offended in the local community.

Working in partnership with the local police since October 2003, the project aims to reduce the levels of truancy from schools by carrying out regular truancy sweeps in the Medway area. Information regarding pupils' non-attendance is collated from the police, local residents, shopkeepers and schools, as well as transport agencies, libraries and youth centres. The importance of school attendance is raised through publicity to children and parents, by providing leaflets to schools. During the course of a truancy sweep a child may be returned to school, if it is deemed that they do not have a valid reason to be absent, or that their parents/carers are not aware of their absenteeism. The pupils’ attendance is then monitored for a period of time, with the aim of improving their percentage attendance level.

For 2008/9 it is likely that this project will be reconfigured within Medway Council’s education welfare
service.

Case studies

Impact Evaluation(71KB)