Over 1,000,000 children are absent from school every year. On a typical school day there are 50,000 children who are not in school.

Over 8 million school days are lost across the UK each year.

Truants are more likely to be out of work, homeless and three times more likely to offend than non-truants. Home Office Research found that 75% of boys and 50% of girls who truant just once a week have already committed offences. Truancy has costly effects to the police, courts, prisons and victims of crime.

There is no question that something needs to be done nation-wide. The Government has set a target to reduce truancy by a third by the end of this year and a further pledge has been made to reduce unauthorised absence by a further 10% between 2002 and 2004.

In addition the Government has set attendance rate targets this year for Secondary Schools at 92% and Primary Schools at 95%.

To help these targets become a reality they have pledged £500,000,000 to anti-truancy schemes and strategies. This is in addition to a £12,000,000 Home Office grant towards other ways of reducing juvenile crime associated with truancy.