A CRACKDOWN on truancy is taking place in Hambleton this week.
The district council is taking part in the Government's national Truancy Sweep programme.
The blitz follows on from a series of truancy awareness days held in the area's market towns during the summer.
North Yorkshire Police, the education social work service and Hambleton Community Safety Partnership are working together to crack down on truanting pupils and absences from school condoned by parents.
Sweeps are being done under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, by which police and social workers approach school age youngsters, wheth-er with an adult or alone, to ask why they are not in school.
PC Jacki Postance, Hambleton youth action officer, said: "Reasons for non-attendance are many and varied and often complex. Truancy does not only damage the child's progress through school but heightens the risk of them becoming involved in criminal activities which affect the whole community.
"Where we establish a problem, follow-up work will be done by education social workers and schools."
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