Truancy sweeps are an ineffective use of police resources and most of the children stopped are not truanting, a new report claims.
The survey of 120 councils, carried out by the children's rights organisation Action on Rights for Children, finds each police officer took 82 minutes to pick up a truant, during sweeps carried out last autumn.
It says more than 16,000 hours of police time are spent on truancy sweeps each year - equivalent to annual working hours of 10 full-time police officers.
Terri Dowty, director of Arch, said figures were often quoted for the total number of children stopped, incorrectly implying that they were all truants.
"Sweeps may give the impression that something is being done about truancy, but the misleading figures that are bandied around only mask the fact that the truancy sweep initiatives are having no effect on children who are missing out on education," she said.
The charity called for resources to be switched to tackling the causes of persistent truanting.
Stephen Mason, president of the National Association of Social Workers in Education, said truancy sweeps raised the profile of school attendance but did not tackle entrenched truanting.
"I would support investment [in sweeps] being given to dedicated support for entrenched young people," he said.
Charles Clark, the lead on youth matters at the Association of Chief Police Officers, defended the use of police resources, saying it "seemed like money well spent".
A Department for Education and Skills spokesperson said that the government "made no apology for taking a tough line on pupil behaviour".
Meanwhile, a separate study has found that rates of unauthorised absence have not changed in 10 years and permanent exclusions have risen by 20 per cent since 2000, despite the government spending more than £1bn on tackling poor attendance and challenging behaviour.
The study, which was produced by New Philanthropy Capital, a charity that advises donors on how to give more effectively, says the government is hampered by the tension between being seen to be tough on poor behaviour and the needs of all pupils.
