Worrying truancy culture across Haringey's schools

Justin Hinchcliffe, the Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives, today pointed to newly published figures showing that truancy has soared cross Haringeys secondary schools, and warned this was damaging childrens welfare and could lead to more petty crime across Haringey.

Figures recently obtained by Conservatives in Parliament show that across Haringey, truancy in secondary schools has risen by a staggering 56 per cent since 1997. This is despite repeated government initiatives to crack down on truancy. Across England, the rise is 25 per cent. Justin said:

The rising tide of truancy in Haringey is yet another broken promise by the Government. They once pledged to cut truancy by a third, but it has actually risen by 56 per cent in secondary schools across Haringey since 1997. Truancy not only damages the education of children, in many cases, it is the start of a conveyor belt to crime.

This is one of the many problems facing our schools in Haringey, along with funding shortages, low morale and lack of proper discipline. What schools need is a return of the power of heads to impose discipline, and an improvement in the vocational curriculum so that all children feel they are gaining something useful from every school day.

Notes to Editors

Labour pledged in 1998, a reduction by one-third in school truancies (from 0.7% to 0.5% half days missed a year through unauthorised absence) by 2002 (Treasury, Comprehensive Spending Review - Public Service Agreements 1999-2002, December 1998). The Government failed to hit this target  by the end of 2002 the truancy rate was still 0.7% (DfES, Pupil Absence in Schools in England: 2001/2002, December 2002).

The Government has spent more than £650 million on truancy initiatives since 1997: £500 million on Pupil Support Grant, 1999-2002 (DfES, Press Release, 1 October 1998), £66 million for 2002-03 (DfES, Press Release, 25 April 2002)., £50 million for Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP), 2002-03;  £37.8 for BIP, 2003-04 (DfES, Press Release, 1 April 2003).

Local statistics
In answer to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Damian Green MP, the Shadow Education Secretary, the Government have published new figures on the level of truancy in maintained secondary schools (HC Debs, col. 413W, 30 April 2003). The table below lists the number of pupils absent for at least one half day due to unauthorised absence in each English LEA each year.

Truancy by LEA 1997-98 2001-02 % Change

Barking & Dagenham 2,345 3,614 54%
Barnet 2,318 3,939 70%
Barnsley 3,362 4,396 31%
Bath & North East Somerset 1,087 2,203 103%
Bedfordshire 3,319 4,253 28%
Bexley 1,212 3,361 177%
Birmingham 15,979 17,388 9%
Blackburn with Darwen 1,915 1,659 -13%
Blackpool 1,328 1,492 12%
Bolton 3,265 3,213 -2%
Bournemouth 1,683 1,662 -1%
Bracknell Forest 558 1,184 112%
Bradford 11,881 11,849 0%
Brent 1,378 1,874 36%
Brighton & Hove 1,298 1,978 52%
Bristol, City of 3,425 4,644 36%
Bromley 2,198 3,188 45%
Buckinghamshire 1,777 3,364 89%
Bury 1,102 1,587 44%
Calderdale 1,663 2,435 46%
Cambridgeshire 4,327 4,728 9%
Camden 1,788 1,985 11%
Cheshire 4,738 6,076 28%
Cornwall 2,873 3,815 33%
Coventry 2,876 3,289 14%
Croydon 1,952 2,688 38%
Cumbria 2,561 4,435 73%
Darlington 843 666 -21%
Derby, City of 2,131 2,622 23%
Derbyshire 6,704 7,348 10%
Devon 6,745 8,742 30%
Doncaster 4,404 4,710 7%
Dorset 2,858 3,547 24%
Dudley 1,690 2,819 67%
Durham 4,557 4,071 -11%
Ealing 2,671 2,545 -5%
East Riding of Yorkshire 3,853 3,805 -1%
East Sussex 4,030 7,754 92%
Enfield 3,543 5,864 66%
Essex 10,688 12,745 19%
Gateshead 1,354 1,216 -10%
Gloucestershire 2,452 4,477 83%
Greenwich 3,559 3,715 4%
Hackney 2,060 2,876 40%
Halton 1,143 2,383 108%
Hammersmith & Fulham 1,115 1,375 23%
Hampshire 8,870 12,888 45%
Haringey 2,656 4,150 + 56%
Harrow 939 1,097 17%
Hartlepool 1,002 1,535 53%
Havering 2,044 2,101 3%
Herefordshire 757 1,426 88%
Hertfordshire 6,736 10,325 53%
Hillingdon 2,518 3,541 41%
Hounslow 2,246 2,494 11%
Isle of wight 1,627 1,544 -5%
Islington 2,684 2,360 -12%
Kensington & Chelsea 865 925 7%
Kent 7,772 11,212 44%
Kingston upon Hull, City of 4,919 4,873 -1%
Kingston upon Thames 744 1,143 54%
Kirklees 4,323 4,570 6%
Knowsley 2,692 2,981 11%
Lambeth 2,075 1,746 -16%
Lancashire 7,972 9,069 14%
Leeds 8,649 10,726 24%
Leicester city 4,156 5,315 28%
Leicestershire 5,626 8,519 51%
Lewisham 3,526 4,474 27%
Lincolnshire 4,202 5,795 38%
Liverpool 6,757 7,463 10%
Luton 2,229 1,891 -15%
Manchester 5,250 4,297 -18%
Medway 2,389 2,211 -7%
Merton 2,137 2,106 -1%
Middlesborough 1,932 1,701 -12%
Milton Keynes 1,146 1,342 17%
Newcastle upon Tyne 2,141 3,109 45%
Newham 6,610 7,363 11%
Norfolk 5,440 8,724 60%
North East Lincolnshire 2,186 3,183 46%
North Lincolnshire 1,707 2,499 46%
North Somerset 1,385 2,565 85%
North tyneside 1,166 1,219 5%
North Yorkshire 2,367 3,561 50%
Northamptonshire 6,009 9,814 63%
Northumberland 2,129 1,875 -12%
Nottingham, City of 4,447 4,311 -3%
Nottinghamshire 8,433 10,329 22%
Oldham 3,787 4,080 8%
Oxfordshire 8,683 8,952 3%
Peterborough, City of 2,085 1,809 -13%
Plymouth, City of 2,069 1,592 -23%
Poole 864 989 14%
Portsmouth 1,877 2,304 23%
Reading 821 716 -13%
Redbridge 1,447 2,800 94%
Redcar & Cleveland 1,057 2,103 99%
Richmond upon Thames 1,069 2,700 153%
Rochdale 2,979 3,453 16%
Rotherham 2,796 4,097 47%
Rutland 312 206 -34%
Salford 2,214 3,534 60%
Sandwell 4,844 4,085 -16%
Sefton 2,364 2,563 8%
Sheffield 6,122 7,861 28%
Shropshire 2,631 2,600 -1%
Slough 1,098 1,442 31%
Solihull 1,181 1,742 48%
Somerset 3,055 3,490 14%
South Gloucestershire 3,176 4,308 36%
South Tyneside 648 1,251 93%
Southampton 1,611 2,079 29%
Southend-on-Sea 1,760 1,664 -5%
Southwark 3,065 3,311 8%
St Helens 1,356 1,576 16%
Staffordshire 4,669 6,995 50%
Stockport 3,028 2,984 -1%
Stockton-On-Tees 971 1,628 68%
Stoke-on-Trent 2,453 3,674 50%
Suffolk 4,693 8,001 70%
Sunderland 3,986 3,140 -21%
Surrey 4,451 9,619 116%
Sutton 1,031 2,106 104%
Swindon 2,164 1,957 -10%
Tameside 2,519 3,386 34%
Telford & Wrekin 1,593 1,196 -25%
Thurrock 1,497 1,949 30%
Torbay 1,216 2,373 95%
Tower Hamlets 5,531 5,831 5%
Trafford 1,257 1,778 41%
wakefield 3,918 3,828 -2%
Walsall 2,935 3,508 20%
Waltham Forest 3,376 3,749 11%
Wandsworth 1,744 2,218 27%
Warrington 878 1,918 118%
Warwickshire 3,543 3,529 0%
West Berkshire 663 1,168 76%
West Sussex 4,193 6,359 52%
Westminster 2,046 2,331 14%
Wigan 2,975 2,353 -21%
Wiltshire 2,923 3,852 32%
Windsor & Maidenhead 882 1,719 95%
Wirral 1,927 1,708 -11%
Wokingham 789 1,631 107%
Wolverhampton City 3,046 2,661 -13%
Worcestershire 4,712 4,600 -2%
York, City of 568 1,677 195%
England 453,216 566,684 25%

ENDS.