JASON AND RICHARD - TRUANCY

Jason and Richard are two brothers from Kent. They have been playing truant from school for the last two years. Fourteen-year-old Jason has only attended school for 30 days this year. His brother, 12-year-old Richard, has been to school just 10 times. When not at school the boys fill their days watching television and hanging out with their friends on the estate where they live. Due to the government's relatively new policy of coming down hard on the parents of truants, it is Richard and Jason's mum Jackie, who is paying for her sons' non-attendance at school. Jackie has been fined £700 altogether and she, in theory, is also facing a potential prison sentence because of Jason and Richard's persistent truanting. A handful of women have been sent to prison in the UK for not ensuring that their offspring attend school – the sentence is 60 days.