One in five children in Brighton and Hove played truant from school at least once last year, new figures have revealed.

On average, primary school youngsters in the city who missed class without permission from their parents were absent for a total of four days. In secondary schools, the results were worse, with an average of ten-and-a-half days being missed.

The figures were released by the Department for Education as a Brighton woman was jailed for seven days for failing to prevent her teenage daughters skipping school.

She is believed to be only the second parent in the country sent to prison over truant children.

Parents can be fined up to £2,500 and sentenced to three months in prison if they are aware that their child is a persistent truant. The Government is also planning to give headteachers the power to fine parents who fail to ensure their children attend school.

Of the city's 14,584 primary school pupils, 2,973 were absent without permission. In secondary schools, the figure stood at 1,978 out of 11,639 pupils.

Councillor Pat Hawkes, chair of the children, families and schools' committee on Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "Our schools are tracking the national average and we have been making small but significant progress in improving attendance levels.

"We are also being vigorous in taking on the small number of hard-core parents who deny their children an education. In the past 12 months we have made 44 prosecutions.

"Our education welfare service is also involved in a whole range of initiatives to drive home the importance of school attendance."

However, the council warned the figures can be misleading, with a small proportion of children taking a long time off school, pushing up the average.

In East Sussex an average of three-and-a-half days was missed by pupils absent without permission, with 5,246 out of 34,068 recorded as playing truant.

In secondary schools, 7,754 out of 26,689 pupils were absent without permission for an average of seven days.

West Sussex had a better record with 6,134 out of 54,516 primary school pupils absent. An average of three-and-a-half days were skipped. A total of 6,359 out of 40,369 secondary pupils were classed as truant, for an average of eight days.