Education secretary Michael Gove announced a review of sanctions
for truancy in a speech made after the riots, last year. Gove said policing of
the existing sanctions was "weak".
"When
fines are imposed, they are often reduced to take account of an adult's
expenditure on satellite TV, alcohol and cigarettes. And many appear to shrug
off fines and avoid existing sanctions, refusing to take responsibility for
their actions," he said.
As a result, proposals published on Monday by the government's
expert adviser on behaviour, Charlie Taylor, would allow head-teachers to impose fines of £60 for
truancy, rising to £120 if they are not paid within 28 days which will be
docked automatically from child benefit. Parents who do not receive child
benefit and fail to pay fines would have the money recovered through county
courts. Currently, parents of children who play truant face a fine of £50,
rising to £100 if unpaid after 28 days.
Taylor's
review of truancy will call for a crackdown on term-time holiday, with absence
only allowed in "exceptional circumstances". In the past school year,
term-time holiday was the reason for 9.5% of absences from school, up from 9.3%
the previous year.
The
education watchdog, Ofsted, will also be urged to set timed targets for
improving attendance in schools where there are high rates of truancy.
A report on the effectiveness of fines, commissioned by the last
government, found that 79% of local authorities said penalty notices were
"very successful" or "fairly successful" in improving
school attendance, but councils felt court action was often a long-winded
process that achieved little. In 2010, out of 9,147 parents taken to court and
found guilty over their children's truancy, only 6,591 received a fine or a
more serious sanction..
Fines
for school absence were introduced by the Labour government in 2004 and the
levels of the fines have not been revised since then.
More
than 32,600 penalty notices for school absence were issued to parents last
year, and more than 127,000 have been issued since their introduction in 2004.
However, about half of all notices have gone unpaid or been withdrawn; schools
or local authorities have to withdraw the penalty notice if it is unpaid after
42 days. The only further option is to prosecute parents.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/apr/16/truancy-fines-deducted-from-child-benefit
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