GOVERNMENT plans to introduce parenting classes may prove useless, warns a Save The Children Scotland report published today.

Social stigma would deter many parents from attending skills classes, the charity claims in a report on its Positive Parenting Project, a three-year Lottery-funded scheme involving more than 300 parents from four disadvantaged communities.

According to Ms Elizabeth Cutting, the report's author, the negative connotation between bad parents and such classes is a major hurdle. ''Appropriate support for parents is not parenting classes,'' she said. ''Any policies which fail to take this on board would not meet with success.''