Parents face parking-ticket-style penalty for truants

PARENTS whose children miss school or turn up late for lessons are facing parking-ticket-style penalties.
Families caught in the truancy trap will be hit with on-the-spot £50 fines.
If they don’t pay up within four weeks, the penalty will dramatically double to £100.
The tough strategy – dubbed ‘Truancy Tickets’ – is set to be rubber-stamped by Camden’s education supremo Councillor Nick Smith at a council meeting tonight (Thursday).
He is due to be briefed by civil servants in the education department who have mapped out how the sanctions, part of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, can be phased in.
Camden say the fines are a speedy alternative to taking parents to court over their children’s truancy, a move which officials regard as too long-winded and ultimately ineffective.
Cllr Smith has already indicated his support for the new punishment.
He said yesterday (Wednesday): “It’s essential that pupils go to school regularly. When it comes to education, every day counts. Penalty notices will only be needed in a very small number of cases, where other methods have failed.”
Camden has seen an improvement in attendance figures and statistics released by the Town Hall last night show that national targets have been met in the current school year.
But the crackdown is almost certain to go-ahead with officials rooting out cases in which children are stopped on truancy patrols, booked in on term-time holidays or arriving late for school on a regular basis.
Plans to set-up the system so that headteachers would issue the tickets are likely to be dropped amid fears that it would strain relations between schools and parents. Instead, Camden’s Education Welfare Service will dole out the tickets and collect the cash.
They will either deliver penalty notices by hand or send them first class post. Council reports written ahead of the crunch meeting say that clamping down on truancy is a chief priority for Camden.
A draft protocol for the new fines – compiled by Camden’s acting Education Director Yvette Stanley – said: “Comparative performance with inner London boroughs for 2003/2004 placed us at eleventh out of 12 for secondary attendance, and lowest attendance rates for primary. Penalty notices can provide a quicker and cheaper and more effective way of sanctioning those parents who are capable of improving their child’s attendance. A simple sanction will focus them on the their responsibilities.”
In a bid to keep children in school during term-time, the Town Hall has already offered cut price holidays in paradise locations for parents who book their summer breaks in recognised school holidays.