MORE than 100 Worcestershire parents have been fined £50 for allowing their children to bunk off school since new powers to tackle truancy were introduced last year.

But only 30 of the 112 fines have been paid. The 82 outstanding have now been doubled to £100 fines, and could eventually be ramped up to £1,000. Two county families have already reached this stage and been ordered to attending counselling sessions. Eight families from Worcester have been fined, the rest are in the Kidderminster and Redditch areas, said Steve Wilkinson, the county's principal education welfare officercorr.

"The fixed penalty notices are the last resort, and come at the end of our intervention process - there will have been welfare officers involved and welfare support offered to the parents before the fines are issued," he said.

"The scheme itself has just started and it is going very well in the areas where it is being targeted."

Alex Wall, headteacher at Fairfield Community Primary School in Brickfields, Worcester, said: "Clearly, when a school has to issue a fixed penalty notice it is the final step before prosecution.

"Any school that did issue a notice would have exhausted all other ways of addressing the problem, including talking to parents and educational welfare officers."

He said he had not had to call for a penalty at his school.

Sue Mason, Nunnery Wood Primary School's headteacher, said truancy was more of a problem at secondary school, but fostering a preventative attitude began early.

"There is a lot of work to be done in primary schools to encourage parents to be informed how important consistent school attendance is."

She said maintaining goodwill with parents, and employing other preventative measures could reduce the need for the fines.

Nunnery Wood Primary School has attendance rates better than the national average and has not had cause to issue a notice.

The county's tally of fixed penalty notices went towards the total of 1,134 handed out nationally. Worcestershire is one of only a handful of local authorities to take up the new powers over truancy, which came into force last September. In addition to fines, courts can make a order for parents to attend a counselling course to ensure their children go to lessons.