Schools across Sussex are to receive more than £3 million to fund a crackdown on children skipping school.

The cash will pay for more truancy sweeps where police and education welfare officers pick up youngsters who should be in the classroom.

The £3,148,267 package will fund more schemes to encourage greater parental and community awareness of truancy, allow more schools to employ learning mentors to improve attendance and tackle bullying and disaffection.

The money will also pay for more off-site pupil referral units to provide a full-time education and fund up to 1,000 more teaching places than in 1997.

The Government announced the windfall today as part of a £174 million grant to local authorities from the Social Inclusion Pupil Support Standards Fund.

The grants are divided into money which is going directly into schools to help them tackle truancy and poor behaviour, including setting up new learning support units to take disruptive pupils out of the classroom, and money going to local authorities to tackle bad behaviour and provide education to excluded pupils.

East Sussex will receive nearly £1.2 million to fund pupil support projects and a further £118,000 for support units in schools.

Brighton and Hove will get over £855,000, plus £61,000 for learning support units in schools, while West Sussex will get over £1.1 million, plus £143,000 for support units.

The Department for Education and Employment said the level of funding for 2001-2 is ten times the amount available in 1996-7.

Brighton Kemp Town MP Des Turner said: "This is excellent news. Nothing better highlights this Government's determination to ensure that everyone gets the best possible start in life than its emphasis on both improving school standards for all and by reducing truancy.

"Everyone benefits when truancy is reduced as crime falls and children's aspirations rise. It is shameful that the previous Conservative government only spent a tenth as much tackling this serious problem; it emphasises their disinterest in state education."

Schools minister Jacqui Smith said: "Too many school children are missing school and cutting their chances of success in life."

She said schools are to be given more flexibility to decide how to spend the grant to make the most difference - from employing more school-based education welfare officers to tackle the problem directly or taking a preventative approach by introducing peer mentoring.

The Government says as many as 50,000 children play truant on any given day.