SCHOOLS across Lancashire will benefit from a £4million cash injection aimed at tackling bad behaviour and pupils skipping class.

And truancy sweeps piloted in East Lancashire are to be expanded throughout the country -- after the idea was championed by Home Secretary Jack Straw.

The new schemes will be started as part of a £174million nationwide package -- £43million up on last year -- announced today, although education bosses have yet to reveal exactly how all the money will be spent.

But among the projects to benefit will be truancy sweeps, where police and education welfare officers pick up youngsters who should be in school and return them to the classroom.

Mr Straw was so impressed by the success of truancy sweeps in Blackburn that he personally recommended the idea to Education Secretary David Blunkett.

Other schemes followed in East Lancashire and elsewhere in the country -- now extra cash has been made available to extend it further.

The cash will pay for more sweeps, as well as financing more schemes to encourage greater parental and community awareness of truancy.

The cash will also allow more schools to employ "learning mentors" to improve attendance and tackle bullying and disaffection.

A second fund will enable the councils to provide off-site pupil referral units to look after and educate disruptive pupils banned from the classroom. Blackburn with Darwen will get £1,062,240 from the Government's Social Inclusion Pupil Support Standards Fund to help schools stop pupils skipping class.

It will also get £63,987 to set up the special units. Lancashire County Council is to get £3,841,900 to help schools tackle truancy, and an extra £362,606 to set up special units for excluded youngsters.

Mr Straw said: "Blackburn pioneered truancy sweeps with the local police. This is an example of Blackburn leading the way and the rest of the country following.

"The local education authority has a very high reputation with the Department for Education and Employment. David Blunkett has exposed the scale of the problem of truancy and is doing something to tackle it.

"I'm delighted that both nationally and in Blackburn money is being made available to deal with this major social problem. As Home Secretary, I know it's a major crime problem. A huge proportion of juvenile crime is committed by children bunking off school."

Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive member for education, Councillor Bill Taylor, said: "We did a truancy sweep in Blackburn last summer and it proved very successful. I spoke to Jack Straw about the scheme and he was very impressed. Because of that conversation and his conversation with David Blunkett this idea has spread across the country."

The pilot scheme in Blackburn involved three teams of uniformed police working with education welfare officers. Over two days they stopped 166 children, 105 of those with their parents, and found 29 truanting. Crime figures fell by more than a third over the two days.

Picture: A policeman and an education officer chat to youngsters during in Blackburn town centre