Young truants targeted by patrols

Truants are being taken to a special reception centre

Children skipping school in Edinburgh are being targeted by police and education workers who are patrolling the streets of the capital.

Truancy Watch is looking for children under the age of 16 who cannot give a good reason for missing school.

Those caught are taken to a special reception centre and both their school and their parents are contacted.

Police argue that truants are likely to contribute to crime and anti-social behaviour problems.

Officers from Lothian and Borders Police and education welfare officers from Edinburgh City Council have so far spent two days on patrol this week.

There's probably as many reasons as there are truants Councillor Ewan Aitken City of Edinburgh Council

A total of 16 truants, aged 11-14 years, were found and returned to school while investigations are being made in connection with another 17 children who were found with their parents.

Sgt Tom McInally, youth justice officer with Lothian and Borders Police, said: "It is well known that young people truanting are more likely to be victims of crime which is something both the police and council want to prevent.

"Truancy in Edinburgh has also long been acknowledged as a significant contributor to crime and anti-social behaviour.

Identifying problems

"Our aim is to highlight the problem of truancy and to return young people to education and we hope this new initiative will help tackle the problem."

Councillor Ewan Aitken, the local authority's spokesman for children and families, said the centre was a first point of contact for addressing problems.

"We found it to be an effective means of communicating directly with young people playing truant on their own and those out shopping with their parents," he said.

"We were able to reinforce to them the importance of receiving an education as well as highlighting the health and safety issues of young people roaming the streets during school hours.

Social work

"We were very pleased to work with police on this project as absence from school is a problem for all local authorities in Scotland."

He added: "We get other officers in from different professions like social work and so on, to talk through the issues."

Cllr Aitken said underlying factors which emerged included self esteem, feelings of isolation or problems at home.

He added: "There's probably as many reasons as there are truants, we need to treat each child as an individual and work with that child's issues."