The Government aims to reduce truancy by a third by 2002. We have some of the highest rates of unemployment, crime and broken homes in London, and it s all connected. It is a courteous and unobtrusive invitation to involve the boy in conversation. The boy replies that in Year 11 about 20 are missing every day. That is about 20 per cent, says Briers.
Truancy diminishes both educational success and employment prospects.
It also means more crime. Home Office research shows that 75 per cent of boys and 50 per cent of girls who play truant once a week or more have committed offences. The Haringey Truancy Patrol is a plain minibus which, on occasional days as determined by the chief superintendent, picks up 20 to 30 teenagers from the streets and returns them to school or elsewhere if appropriate. Briers goes out in the bus with another uniformed officer, an EWO and a youth officer from the local education authority. Before that they could try only to persuade.