Mother jailed over daughter’s truancy

Feb 20 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

A MOTHER has been jailed for 10 weeks after her daughter missed school on 126 occasions, the equivalent of 63 days.

Maxine McHugh, 47, of Clinkham Wood, St Helens, was given six weeks’ imprisonment added to a four-week suspended sentence from a previous conviction in November last year.

Prosecuting on behalf of St Helens Council, Jane Beatty told St Helens magistrates that McHugh had consistently failed in her duty as a parent to support her daughter’s education.

Her daughter attended school on only two occasions out of a possible 50 between mid November and mid December 2007 and there had been a history of non attendance.

She failed to co-operate with Children and Young People’s Services, despite intensive efforts, the court heard, and ignored repeated warnings of a further prosecution and possible custodial sentence.

The District Judge sitting on the case told McHugh she was not a passive parent but had worked actively against the agencies attempting to support her and her child.

Alan Cogswell, education welfare manager, said: “The authority has exhausted all its possible strategies to get the parent to support her daughter’s attendance.

“This case sends a clear message to parents about their legal responsibilities to ensure their children attend school regularly.

“It is a young person’s right to an education and the authority will take decisive action against parents who fail in their parental responsibility.”

Speaking after the case, Mr Cogswell explained St Helens Council has a “robust approach” to non attendance.

Parents are initially given 12 weeks to improve their child’s attendance with extra help and support from the council.

Mr Cogswell said: “Most non-attendance is through sickness but some of this is an excuse for absence.

“We target persistent absence when pupils attend less than 80% of school time and we have made big inroads into the problem over the last two terms.

“There are lots of different ways to tackle the problem including rewarding pupils when they attend school and offering vouchers for good attendance.

“We never like to see any parent jailed, we would much rather they co-operate so we can work together to solve the problem.”

laurasharpe