A MOTHER who was asked to remove her crying baby from Bolton's employment services offices because he was disturbing staff hopes to highlight the problems of mothers returning to work.

Susan Morris, of Hulton Lane, Bolton, lodged an official complaint to bosses following the incident involving her 22-month-old son Beric.

She was left furious after a member of staff at the Blackhorse Street offices complained about her son in light of the new Government's announcement to encourage mums to return to work.

Mrs Morris explained: "I had gone to the offices early, so by the time I was seen by a member of staff Beric and I had been waiting 40 minutes, which is a long time for any baby to remain quiet.

"Just as I sat down to sign off, because I had found a job, he started to cry.

"He'd only been crying a minute or two when I was told to remove him.

"I thought they were encouraging mums to get back into the workplace. But if you have these problems at the employment office and Jobcentre, it's not going to help."

Fortunately Mrs Morris was with a neighbour who took Beric outside while she continued signing off.

Mrs Morris added: "Sometimes mums have no choice but to take their children into offices and staff should accept that.

"I've taken Beric in before and I there hasn't been a problem.

"I think they should have facilities for mums and young children."

Following her complaint bosses at the Bolton centre apologised for the incident and said they would look into providing some form of child provision at the offices.

Mrs Morris added: "I have accepted the apology and I hope that something good may come from this."

An Employment Services spokesman said: "The Government initiative to encourage lone parents to return to work is aimed at those with school-age children.

"This policy is still being developed and the practicalities of providing facilities in Jobcentres during school holidays while parents are helped with jobseeking are being studied, but no decisions have yet been made.

"There are many issues to be considered including availability of space, health and safety considerations and the views of other Jobcentre clients."

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