School Attendance

HC Deb 28 February 1995 vol 255 cc524-7W

Mr. Waterson

To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether she will publish the results of the survey of arrangements for enforcing school attendance undertaken by her Department last year.

Mr. Forth

The survey showed that 2,689 education welfare officers were employed by English local education authorities as at September 1994. LEAs were also asked to provide information on the number of school attendance orders, education supervision orders and prosecutions mounted against parents over the three school years up to and including 1993–94. The survey revealed that, over the period in question, the total number of SAOs had risen from 40 to 56 a year, ESOs from 81 to 314 a year, and the number of prosecutions had risen from 2,803 to 3,688 a year. The position for individual LEAs is set out in the following table.

Enforcement of School Attendance
	Education Welfare Officers1	School Attendance Orders2	Education Supervision Orders2	Prosecutions2
LEA	Total	FTE	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94
Gateshead	20	20.0	1	0	0	8	5	4	22	45	46
Gloucestershire	16	16.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	11	19
Greenwich	17	15.3	1	0	0	0	0	0	109	138	151
Hackney	15	14.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	14	4
Hammersmith and Fulham	15	12.5	1	4	6	6	4	9	10	12	14
Hampshire	83	80.6	1	0	0	1	1	17	48	32	65
Haringey	12	11.5	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	7	8
Harrow	9	9.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	3	5
Havering	13	13.0	0	0	0	0	4	3	9	15	19
Hereford and Worcester	20	20.0	2	1	0	0	0	1	22	33	49
Hertfordshire	43	40.3	0	0	0	0	3	0	8	16	14
Hillingdon	10	10.0	0	0	0	3	3	0	2	0	1
Hounslow	9	9.0	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	8	2
Humberside	47	46.5	0	1	0	1	6	6	83	94	83
Isle of Wight	9	8.5	0	0	0	1	2	2	4	5	5
Isles of Scilly1	0	0.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Islington	26	22.6	0	0	0	6	5	6	6	6	7
Kensington and Chelsea	15	15.0	0	0	1	2	4	4	11	23	4
Kent	47	42.0	2	1	0	0	8	4	96	236	244
Kingston upon Thames	6	6.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	4	0	0
Kirklees	26	23.0	1	0	2	2	2	0	30	49	42
Knowsley	15	14.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	72	53	27
Lambeth	32	28.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	11	0
Lancashire	86	84.8	0	0	0	0	3	4	40	36	57
Leeds	62	56.0	1	3	3	1	3	5	18	31	21
Leicestershire	39	38.5	1	0	4	1	7	11	25	35	69
Lewisham	17	14.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	25
Lincolnshire	22	22.0	3	6	7	0	1	2	74	52	74
Liverpool	60	56.0	0	6	0	1	1	1	32	45	61
London, Corporation of	1	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manchester	29	27.5	3	0	0	7	5	5	142	148	129
Merton	8	8.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	19	39	37
Newcastle upon Tyne	14	14.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	3	0
Newham	17	17.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	151	77	104
Norfolk	35	30.5	0	0	1	0	0	0	16	17	26
Northamptonshire	26	25.0	0	0	0	0	1	6	70	97	79
Northumberland	12	12.0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	6	7
North Tyneside	12	11.3	0	0	0	0	0	7	0	0	6
North Yorkshire	37	35.0	0	1	0	0	4	3	4	17	21
Nottinghamshire	63	63.0	2	3	5	0	0	0	66	148	229
Oldham	7	7.0	0	0	0	0	0	14	11	14	39
Oxfordshire	25	20.0	0	0	0	2	0	7	5	5	12
Redbridge	10	9.8	0	0	0	0	3	1	6	13	5
Richmond upon Thames	10	9.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	4	5	4
Rochdale	13	12.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Rotherham	19	18.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	45	35	45
St. Helens	12	11.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	24	16	30
Salford	22	22.0	2	0	0	0	0	0	10	20	27
Sandwell	23	22.0	0	0	0	0	0	3	15	21	25
Sefton	24	23.5	0	0	0	0	5	3	8	21	18
Sheffield	53	48.5	1	1	0	0	0	0	14	21	23
Shropshire	18	17.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	44	59	25
Solihull	13	10.0	0	0	0	2	2	2	7	0	6
Somerset4	0	0.0	0	0	0	2	2	10	12	10	17
South Tyneside	17	16.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	17	21	14
Southwark	18	18.0	3	2	5	2	4	3	12	12	11
Staffordshire	57	57.0	0	0	0	0	3	15	33	8	50
Stockport	19	19.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	24	18	23
Suffolk	24	24.0	0	0	1	0	2	2	19	26	23
Sunderland	24	24.0	1	0	0	0	0	4	50	76	121
Surrey	28	26.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	14	18
Sutton	10	10.0	0	0	0	0	4	5	3	5	8
Tameside	16	16.0	0	0	0	1	8	8	53	43	35
Tower Hamlets	18	17.5	4	7	3	0	5	8	31	42	30

Enforcement of School Attendance
	Education Welfare Officers1	School Attendance Orders2	Education Supervision Orders2	Prosecutions3
LEA	Total	FTE	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94
Trafford	10	10.0	0	0	1	1	4	3	21	31	41
Wakefield	20	20.0	0	0	0	0	4	0	37	24	38
Walsall	21	21.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	64	44	54
Waltham Forest	14	14.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	12
Wandsworth	17	17.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	12	9
Warwickshire	30	25.8	0	0	0	7	1	4	10	31	29
Westminster, City of	13	13.0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	3	2
West Sussex	27	24.0	0	0	2	0	4	30	0	12	25
Wigan	17	17.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0
Wiltshire	21	21.0	0	0	1	1	1	3	15	17	10
Wirral	21	20.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	9	1
Wolverhampton	18	18.0	0	1	1	3	5	10	21	21	48
Total	2,689	2,556.6	40	47	56	81	220	314	2,803	3,080	3,688
1 Position as at September 1994.
2 Relates to school years.
3 On the Isles of Scilly, attendance problems are dealt with by headteachers (under 300 pupils in 4 schools)
4 In Somerset, school attendance enforcement is dealt with by Education officers rather than EWOs.