Ministers have published a £470 million behaviour and attendance programme in a bid to crack down on school bullying.

Education minister Ivan Lewis said a range of measures would be in place by the autumn.

The proposals included "funding and training for all secondary schools in anti-bullying strategies and specialist consultants to help local education authorities tackle bullying", he said.

The move coincides with the publication of a new Ofsted report on tackling bullying.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gwen Evans, joint acting general secretary of ATL, said: "ATL welcomes today's helpful publication from Ofsted while regretting the key omission of any consideration of funding issues.

"Bullying is too important a matter to be left to the chanciness of the specially funded short-term project. It is no surprise that some schools neglect all but the most gross incidents - ignoring bullying is all too tempting in the pursuit of high test scores and public examination grades.

"The other disappointment is that although pupils' views do get a bit of a mention, more might usefully have been made of the importance of pupils being fully engaged in maintaining their school's caring ethos.

"If the message is that only results count, then there is a real danger of institutionalised selfishness and a high incidence of hidden bullying."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the PAT, told ePolitix.com: "We welcome this initiative. Bullying is unacceptable. It can damage children both physically and mentally - and educationally if it puts the victims off going to school.

"However, schools need the support of parents to deal with the bullies' behaviour. School-based initiatives will not work in isolation."