The government has set out plans to issue parents with on-the-spot fines if their children are caught playing truant.

The plans involve issuing fixed penalty notices to parents of between £25 and £100, if it is proved that children are absent from classes without the permission of the school.

The fines could be imposed by head teachers, education welfare officers and the police.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: "ATL supports effective measures to deal with the serious issue of truancy in schools. Truancy disbars children and young people from the curriculum, a curriculum which is meant to provide them with the life skills and educational qualifications for them to succeed.

"However, we are concerned, at ATL, about the issue of on-the-spot-fines. We have grave doubts as to whether this will be an effective measure for dealing with the complex issue of truancy. An effective measure would be to look at a joined-up approach to see how the problem could be dealt with. We know many children are truant from school because they are being bullied to and from school and some children have to stay off school, as they are the main carers for their family.

"Truancy is more prevalent amongst families with low socio-economic incomes and parents who have had a bad experience of school themselves. Schools have to work with families and their parents to change their perceptions of school.

"If you ask a headteacher to issue an on-the-spot fine to a parent, that completely destroys any positive relationship that the headteacher might be trying to make with those parents and with the children."If you can get these children into the classroom when they are already behind in the curriculum and not integrating with other children, they may well disrupt the education of their peers and make teaching and learning very difficult. These government proposals may seem superficially attractive but it doesn't seem to be a fully thought through idea, neither does its unintended consequences seem to have been properly considered."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, general secretary of PAT, told ePolitix.com: "This is an appalling idea. Head teachers and welfare officers don't possess the necessary information to make these kinds of decisions and would fear litigation if they made an error.

"Head teachers and welfare officers are there for the welfare of school children - not this kind of policing."