SCHOOLCHILDREN were reprimanded in Barnoldswick on Monday as part of a truancy sweep in the town.

Education social workers and police officers joined forces to combat the war on truancy throughout Colne and West Craven.

The first sweep took place on Monday outside Barnoldswick's West Craven High Technology College.

Ten youngsters were stopped and spoken to in West Craven - this included four in the morning and six in the afternoon.

The sweep was part of a joint operation undertaken by the police and the education welfare service. Young people who appear to be of school age can be stopped by a uniformed police officer, accompanied by an education welfare officer, in agreed public places at specified times. They may be alone, with friends or accompanied by an adult.

After stopping youngsters, officers make enquiries to establish whether the young person is out of school with or without authority and a decision is then made on whether to remove them to an agreed designated place.

Welfare officers then check personal details, and the young person will then be escorted back to school or home or will remain at the designated premises until they are collected.

Michael Sunderland, team manager for education and welfare, said: "It went very well. Overall on the day we had 41 pupils throughout - 10 of these were from the West Craven area. Some of them were directed back into school or advised they had to be in school."

Following the sweep on Monday, an education and welfare officer visited West Craven High on Tuesday and Wednesday to speak to senior members of staff and the young people involved.

Mr Sunderland added: "I will also be sending a letter home to those parents to make them aware that their children were stopped on a truancy operation and will be monitoring those people's school attendance over the next six weeks."

The education department conducts at least one sweep a term across the borough with anything up to two operations covering the Barnoldswick area in a year.

Mr Sunderland said: "I don't think it is significantly worse in the Barnoldswick area but we were aware there has been problems more recently. It is no worse certainly than other secondary schools in the area.

"We feel also it does send a signal out to the wider community that we will respond and deal effectively with non-attenders.

He added that parents who condone unlawful absences could now face prison sentences and face fixed penalty fines if their child misses school without an acceptable reason.

Absences from school can only be authorised by the headteacher and are mostly for sickness. Not authorised are shopping trips, birthday celebrations or looking after family members.

In any one year, at least one million children in England will play truant for at least one half day.

According to welfare officers, young people who are absent from school without authority are vulnerable to become victims of crime or commit acts of crime and disorder themselves.

The Government and the Department for Education and Skills have sought to address these issues by making provision under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 Section 16 to undertake truancy sweeps.

The Education Welfare Service acts on behalf of the Local Authority to support families to achieve their child's regular and punctual attendance at school.

Arnold Kuchartschuk, the school's head teacher was unavailable for comment.