Truancy and Truancy Patrols

What is meant by Truanting

When a child is absent from school without permission, then the child is deemed to be truanting.

How can parents help prevent truanting?

Parents can help by ensuring that their children arrive at school at normal opening times and leave school at the end of the school day. In addition to this they can keep in regular contact with the school's attendance officer if they have any concerns about their child's attendance at school.

Truancy Patrols

In an effort to discourage children from truanting, the Police have been given powers under Sec.16 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, to carry out Truancy Patrols within Westminster with members of the Attendance Service and the Youth Offending Team. The patrols are a means of support for schools and young people rather than a punitive measure for dealing with young people found to be out of school. Whilst the importance of the patrols should not be diminished, they should not be seen as the only solution, but as part of a wider package of initiatives for dealing with the problem of truancy.

For further information please contact the Attendance Service on 020 7641 7580.