PARENTS will today receive £50 fines after six children were caught skipping school.

Police Community Support Officer Amanda Luker and an officer from Swindon Council's education department visited parts of West Swindon yesterday and found five children out of school.

Every month PCSOs join forces with council officers to run truant sweeps and check playgrounds and parks all over Swindon.

This week they visited the Link Centre in West Swindon and in the library there they found five children who should have been at Headlands School.

The youngsters were taken to the West Swindon police point where they were issued with forms to take home, telling their parents that they would receive a £50 fine for each child caught out of school.

They also went to the home of another child who had not gone to school. When the officers got to the house he refused to get out of bed, so they issued another £50 fine.

"These kind of days are about sending out messages to parents and pupils," said PCSO Luker, of the West Swindon north neighbourhood policing team.

"We need to show these people that this is the kind of action that we can take to stop truancy."

Nigel Pickering, social inclusion manager for children services at Swindon Council, said: "It is to reinforce the message that it is a legal requirement for children to attend school and to ensure that the young achieve their potential.

"Parents sometimes don't realise that that when kids are out of school they can be vulnerable.

"We have a team that goes into local areas and town centres and speaks to young people to find out why they aren't in school.

"There is also the possibility of a family being issued with a penalty notice and we can take action against them if the children aren't sent to school."