Lawrence Warburton, a principal education welfare officer and president of the National Association of Social Workers in Education, said the money could have employed 3,560 frontline education welfare officials to work directly with schools, pupils and their families. "This would have led to an improvement on the current (absence) figures," he said.
A report on improving school attendance in England by the National Audit Office said the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) must improve communications with and between local authority education welfare services and schools if some of the initiatives funded by this money are to work more effectively.
The report said some local authorities felt the DfES advisers "did not provide expertise over and above that of their own staff, and some did not tailor their advice to meet local circumstances". Warburton said: "There is a wealth of experience within education social work teams in local education authorities and it was not acknowledged or used."
- www.nao.org.uk
