Truancy Call

Stephen Clarke’s business, Truancy Call has been unaffected by the recession and helped by heavy snowfall. Now, the winner of Best use of Technology is poised to take America.

“We’ve taken the age-old problem of truancy and used mobile technology to let parents know their child is missing straight away,” says Stephen Clarke, founder of Truancy Call, when explaining what his business does. The days of bunking off school with no one knowing are numbered now that mum and dad can receive a text message informing them that their child is missing.

It’s such a simple concept that you might be kicking yourself for not thinking of it first. The Birmingham-based business, which picked up the Best Use of Technology award, has now made its way into over 1,000 schools in the UK and alongside Truancy Call it has developed other mobile products to tackle everything from sports day notifications to the more serious problems of bullying.

The company seems to have a real knack of turning problems into opportunities. Indeed, the heavy snowfall at the start of the year proved a blessing for the company as it generated many inquiries.

Receptionists and head teachers were inundated with phone calls and had no other recourse than to call their local radio station to say whether or not school was open. With the majority of its clients in the public sector, the recession hasn’t touched the growing business.

“I am happy to say that we haven’t been affected at all,” says Clarke. “We deal with the public sector and schools and local education authorities (LEAs) are good payers.”

With the expansion of its UK business well underway, other territories are being looked at; wherever there are schools, the business can go. “Our plan for the next two years is to expand our product range that we have for LEAs and schools in this country and move into other English speaking countries, such as Ireland and America.”

The company has set up an office in Denver, Colorado, USA, and is currently demoing its offering to schools there. Clarke says he is planning on working state by state and will be using American staff to sell to the Americans. Perhaps Truancy Call could be the next British business to conquer the US?