The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) is challenging the primary conclusions of a report published today which claims that thousands of children are being left at home alone while their parents work because of a shortage of child care places.

The report warned that the lack of youth clubs and after-school care was increasing the risk that young teenagers will turn to crime, a claim which the CPA says misses the point that children need to have a parent at home when the school day ends.

The report by the 4children charity says that more than a third of 11- to 16-year-olds reported regularly returning from school to an empty home.

It also found that in about 77 per cent of families with older children, both parents worked and that, at any time, half of parents did not know exactly what their teenagers were doing, whom they were with or what they were doing when not in school.

The CPA, meanwhile, has come out in support of greater investment in marriage to allow parents real choice over childcare.

Councillor Alan Craig leads the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council, one of Britain's most deprived boroughs. He commented: "The report paints a bleak picture of children left to their own devices, abandoned by a government which refuses to give real help to families.

"Children both need and deserve the time and attention of a parent at the end of the school day. It is the home which makes the real difference to a child's chances in life, such as being able to read and write, healthy eating habits and avoiding early experimentation with drink and drugs.

"But the answer is not simply to extend the nanny state through more after-hours care - it is to make it financially possible for one or other parent to be at home when their child ends their school day."

At the last general election, the Christian Peoples Alliance proposed policies to support marriage and families, including higher child benefits and transferable personal tax allowances which would benefit a couple on average earnings with two children by an average of £4350 annually.

Councillor Craig added that Labour was not doing enough to tackle the root of the problem. He said: "Labour will invest in any alternative to the family and now Gordon Brown will make it worse by forcing single-parents to return to the workforce when their child is about to enter their teens."

The CPA head concluded: "What is needed is to reward parenting by removing some of the financial pressure which forces both parents out to work and that will require a totally new direction in government policy."