§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many(a) Educational Welfare Officer posts and (b) vacancies for Educational Welfare Officers there are in each local education authority. [149809]
§ Jacqui SmithThe information is not collated centrally.
Education Welfare Officers have a long history of working directly with school and families to promote regular attendance. We are currently piloting whether Education Welfare Officers employed directly by schools would help to improve this liaison and assist in our overall aim of reducing the number of school truancies. There are 16 local education authorities involved in the pilots and we will be looking closely at them throughout the year.