THE county council says latest absence figures prove a crackdown on pupil’s playing truant has been a success.

Working with Bromsgrove and Droitwich schools, the county adopted new policies two years ago designed to bring down the number of days lost, and recent figures show in the 2008 spring term, 193,727.5 schools day were lost.

The county council says this represents a reduction of 85,598 days on the past year, compared to the 2007 autumn term.

Councillor Liz Eyre, Worcestershire County Council's cabinet member for children and young people, said: "These figures continue the positive trend and show how we are making great strides in tackling the problem of pupils' absence.”