§ 23. Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on school attendances.
§ Mr. Chris PattenUnjustified absence is a serious problem in a minority of schools. In the Government's view there is scope for the education welfare services to focus their efforts more sharply on such absence, and to take early, preventive action before irregular attendance becomes habitual. On 10 February the Department issued a circular "School attendance and education welfare services", to local education authorities. It contained a number of recommendations about the functions and organisation of the services, commented on their implications for the training of education welfare officers, and asked authorities to inform the Secretary of State by 31 May how far their existing and planned policies corresponded to those recommendations. Early in 1987 we will ask for more detailed information about authorities' arrangements for implementing the recommendations in the circular.