'Misunderstanding' around Bedfordshire PCC's School Absenteeism Pilot is 'disappointing'

During the Police and Crime Panel on Tuesday (February 7), councillor Gareth Mackey (Central Bedfordshire) said the PCC has his full support for the project.

“I was disappointed to see recently on social media that there is still misunderstanding of the success of the project and the impact that it’s having,” councillor Mackey said.

“I think there’s still a misunderstanding based on perhaps some teething problems and some genuine misunderstanding from when the project was inaugurated.

“What else you can do, what further engagement can take place to change people’s minds on this,” he asked.

The PCC, Festus Akinbusoye, said he had recently seen the pilot’s interim outcomes report.

“About 120 interventions have been carried out so far, and there’s still some schools where the team is struggling to get access to,” he said.

“I’ve had to directly intervene in these and already the referrals are coming in,” he said.

“What I’m looking to do is to publish the interim findings, so that at least everyone is aware of them.

“I will certainly be making sure that the outcomes so far, including case studies, are being made public for everyone to see,” he said.

Councillor Mackey wondered if the PCC would be amenable to hold some personal briefings.

“Because, regrettably, some of the social media that you’ve had to deal with [came from] some of the people in my political group in Central Beds,” he said.

“Whilst it sounds good coming from me to support what you’re doing, I think sometimes there are questions that only you can answer.

“And it would be nice if you could perhaps meet some people in a different environment to again correct some of those misconceptions,” he said.

The PCC replied: “That’s not a problem, I genuinely want this to be seen as the success that it has been so far.

“I very much regret the misunderstandings that some continue to have, but I will be very happy to have briefings with any group of councillors,” he said.

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