Parents in Bradford trying to look after unruly children will be given help from a "supernanny".

The city was named as one of 77 areas chosen to benefit from part of a £4 million cash injection by the Government's Respect Task Force.

The money will pay for parenting experts to advise new parents and intervene when children get into trouble.

It is hoped those parents who are worried about their children's behaviour can get the help they need to put an end to the bad behaviour and bring up happier, better behaved children.

Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that poor parenting was bad for society and catastrophic for children.

He said: "The nanny state argument applied to this is just rubbish. No-one's talking about interfering in a normal family life.

"But life isn't normal if you've got 12-year-olds out every night drinking and creating a nuisance on the street with their parents either not knowing or not caring. In these cases, a bit of nannying with sticks and carrots is what the local community needs."

Mr Blair said an "overwhelming majority" of people would welcome outside assistance.

A Mori poll for the Home Office showed 51 per cent of people in Yorkshire and Humber believe poor parenting is one of the main causes of bad behaviour. A further 49 per cent thought better parenting would reduce crime and nationally 85 per cent of people blamed parents for allowing children to become out of control.

Mark Carriline, Bradford Council's strategic director for children's services, said: "The Council welcomes the news that we are to get funding for a child psychologist for this year and next to lead on developing parent provision in the district.

"We have already commissioned an audit of parenting provision which has been carried out by the charity Barnardo's. From this we will develop a strategy that will provide support for families generally and in particular for those parents who are struggling to cope with their children's behaviour."

The latest move follows an announcement last week that 20 of the areas worst families will be made to sign good conduct contracts in a bid to tackle their anti-social behaviour.

A new team will give support to each nuisance family - and will have the power to enforce tough rules if they misbehave.

Bradford has also put in a bid to the Government to become a priority Respect Action Area.

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