Cases were heard at Magistrates’ Courts in Lewes, Hastings and Eastbourne, as part of East Sussex County Council’s drive to prosecute parents who continually ignore their child’s absence from school and fail to co-operate with Education Welfare staff to resolve problems.
Seven cases were heard at Lewes Magistrates Court, resulting in a total of £50 ordered in fines and costs of £200 awarded to the Children’s Services Authority. In one case parents were each given a 12 month Conditional Discharge with a total of £100 costs each being awarded to the Children’s Services Authority. One child had attended for 43% of sessions between January and May 2006 and the other child for 34% of sessions for the same period.
Three cases lead to parents receiving Conditional Discharges and two cases were adjourned pending medical evidence.
At Hastings, parents in six cases received a Conditional Discharge and will find themselves back in court if their child continues to be absent from school – in one case a child had attended for only 24% of sessions between January and June 2006.
Another parent received a £250 fine and £100 costs were awarded to the Children’s Services Authority and in a further case an 11 month Conditional Discharge was given to a parent whose child had attended for just 10% between November 2005 and March 2006.
At Eastbourne Magistrates Court, total costs of £50 were awarded in two cases. In the first case a parent pleaded guilty and was also given a 12 month Conditional Discharge. In the second case a further parent, pleaded guilty regarding both her children and give a six month Conditional Discharge –one child had only attended 47% of sessions between February to May 2006 and the other child attended for 87% of sessions for the same period.
Councillor Rupert Simmons, Lead member for learning and school effectiveness said: "We are committed to helping children in East Sussex achieve a high standard of education, to give them the best start in life possible. But we need parents and carers working with us to make this happen.
"Our Education Welfare service provides advice and support to parents and carers who may have problems with their child’s school attendance. But we will also use strong measures to enforce this, including penalty notices, truancy sweeps and prosecuting parents who continually allow their children to miss school.”
The Education Welfare service contact parents offering guidance and support when schools attempts to resolve poor attendance fails. Legal options are only pursued if children remain out of school and parents fail to co-operate to resolve the problem.
Reference:
1065
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