Tackling school exclusion and children missing out from education plays a key part in the efforts to cut crime and anti social behaviour. Every year Nacro reaches out to thousands of young people who do not attend school regularly, have been excluded or are unknown to the education system. We try to target the underlying causes of non-attendance and poor achievement by building skills and confidence and tackling problem behaviour. We work closely with schools, to help young people reintegrate. For some, education outside school is the only practicable option, although funding for 'alternative curriculum' schemes is hard to come by.

While there is no shortage of government initiatives aimed at reducing truancy and exclusion, if voluntary and community organisations are to continue to play their part, perennial problems of short-term planning and stop/start schemes need to be tackled.

Punitive responses from the government - fining parents or sending them to prison - are superficially attractive but can have only limited effect. Truancy is often associated with difficult and fractured family relationships: punishing parents is not going to mend them.