For far too long Bradford has languished at or near the bottom of the national table of education authorities as far as success at dealing with truancy is concerned. The district has an appalling record when it comes to pupils taking unofficial time off school. Despite numerous efforts, the authority has failed to get to grips with the problem.

The situation has improved little in recent years. It gives Bradford a bad reputation and contributes to the district's overall poor educational showing.

Truancy also leads on to juvenile crime, which is often in turn followed by adult crime. So it is encouraging to hear of the results of a pilot project carried out at 14 schools over the past three months. Of the youngsters targeted, 94 per cent met attendance targets set for them with just three failing to do so.

There seem to have been two key factors in this turnaround. Firstly, individual attention was focused on specific pupils, with social workers working closely with them and their families. Secondly, the threat of prosecution if their children fail to co-operate appears to have concentrated the parents' minds effectively.

While it cannot be claimed that the project is a complete success until it can be recorded what happens after the children are removed from the glare of individual attention, it has to be said that the improvements reported so far are welcome.

It just goes to show that sometimes the stick, or the threat of it, can be a more effective weapon than the carrot in the fight against anti-social behaviour.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.