A COUNTY Durham company is about to triple its workforce in a jobs blackspot as it launches a mobile phone messaging service designed to reduce truanting.

On Net Communications, based in Weardale, said it was planning to install its Parent Information Service in about 180 schools in the region.

The success of the service, which has attracted the interest of ten education authorities in the region, meant the company will more than triple its workforce, from 25 to 80, by April this year.

The Parent Information Service, which will be co-ordinated from On Net's call centre in Weardale, will allow schools to send text messages, e-mails or faxes to inform parents if their child fails to turn up for school.

Parents can be given the option of how they would like to be contacted.

Michael Reay, business development manager for On Net, said the system could be tailored for each school.

He said: "Different schools have different needs. For some of them, this may just be an emergency fall-back, but other schools may want to use the service more extensively."

Schools around the UK have been working to reduce their truancy figures to meet Government targets of reducing unauthorised absence by eight per cent by 2008.

Many schools are already using First Day Response, with a member of staff contacting parents by telephone along with schools encouraging parents to contact them directly to register their child as absent.

Education authorities across the country have already implemented strategies such as e-registration, school-based attendance officers, truancy sweeps and dedicated information lines.

Previous computerised systems that leave synthesised messages on telephones have been moderately successful, but have proved unpopular with some parents who have found them too impersonal.

Mr Reay said: "This service will ensure parents receive a personal message which they can respond to straight away."

He said the service was expected to take up half of On Net's capacity, but that the company was planning to grow in line with the expansion of the business.

He said: "This firm has made great headway in recent years and we want that trend to continue."