PARENTS could be taken on to teach their own children in a new project launched yesterday.

Bolton has just learned it will receive £54,568 to fund a pilot project designed to help mums and dads get back to work.

The money will be used to help schools and nurseries work together to provide an all-day childcare service for about 50 under fives.

Parents hoping to work with children will be taken on as volunteers or workers on the schemes and offered formal training to gain childcare qualifications.

One part of the project will see the Susan Isaacs nursery band together with St Matthew's Primary School to offer full day and after school childcare.

Another will mean children spending their morning at the Alexander nursery school on Deane Road, the afternoon at private nursery Little Darlings, and the rest of the time at an after school club at Haslam Park Primary School.

The scheme aims to overcome the problem of part-time state nursery provision which parents say often stops them training or getting a job.

Organisers hope working with their own children will give parents the confidence to embark on a childcare career.

Education chairman Cllr Don Eastwood said: "It is a joint effort between education, social services and leisure services and shows what can be achieved when departments work together. As well as creating opportunities for the children, it also provides new opportunities for adults."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.