A Government-funded organisation set up to tackle problems with bullying in schools was criticised last night after it was revealed the group's regional co-ordinator for the West Midlands lives and works in Surrey. The Anti-Bullying Alliance, a group of 50 organisations, was given £570,000 by the Government to tackle bullying and employed nine co-ordinators across the country. When the scheme was launched in July, former Education Minister Ivan Lewis pledged to put an anti-bullying 'tsar' in nine regions to provide schools, local education authorities and parents with practical help and advice. But last night the ABA was criticised by parents and other anti-bullying organisations in the Midlands for failing to provide adequate support in the region. Adrienne Katz, director of Young Voice, an organisation which works with young people outside school, was appointed regional co-ordinator for the West Midlands, despite living and working in Surrey. She is believed to receive £30,000 a year for the role. She said last night: "I was chosen because I have already done a huge amount of work in Birmingham with the Children's Fund, working with children aged five and upwards. "We are working with communities to carry the voice of children in Birmingham to the relevant authorities. I visit the West Midlands a lot, so the distance is not a problem." The jobs for the anti-bullying tsars were never advertised publicly but were given to people already working within the ABA. Gill Frances, co-founder of the ABA, said: "Members of the ABA were asked to put people forward. It does seem strange that the regional co-ordinator for the West Midlands is based in Surrey but Young Voice already had experience in the region and put forward the best application. Adrienne has people working for her in the area." She said the Department for Education and Skills made the final selection but a spokesman for the DfES said last night: "The Anti-Bullying Alliance chose who it appointed." Liz Carnell, from Pershore, Worcestershire, and a director of Bullying Online, a national charity for bullied children and their parents, said: "What help is a bullying tsar for the West Midlands if they are based in Surrey? How do parents know who they are or how to contact them? "Five of these anti-bullying tsars work for local education authorities so a huge part of the Government's £570,000 for dealing with school bullying will be going straight back into local government coffers," she claimed. "We think this is a waste of money and it's certainly not what we understood would happen when the alliance was launched." Tracey Wright, from Bordesley Green in Birmingham, whose daughter Lisa was a victim of bullying at school, said: "I think it's a disgrace that the Government's spending all that money but so little is being done to help children and parents. "We needed support but I had never even heard of the Anti-Bullying Alliance. "No one did anything to help us and we were left feeling as though we were the ones who had done something wrong. "If Lisa had been given more help she wouldn't have reached the point where she tore out her own hair. The Department for Education may keep saying it's clamping down on bullying, but as long as children are still suffering, not enough is being done." | 
