A JOBLESS mother-of-eight who faces jail if she fails to send her children to school, has hit back today, saying: "How can it be the parent's fault?"

Karen Brooks and her unemployed husband, Steve, are accused of doing little to ensure their children turn up to school each day.

The family will appear in a BBC documentary, called Truants, on Thursday, highlighting the work of educational social workers in Bolton and Bury.

And Bolton Council admits it has only had limited success in its work with the family and getting them to send their children to school - adding that taking them to court is an option if their do not mend their ways.

But Mrs Brooks says an unfair picture of her household is being painted, even though her children were kept at home yesterday.

Her excuse was that adverse publicity in Monday's Daily Mail meant her children feared the reaction of their classmates.

But she said the children would be in school today.

The family - Suzanne, aged 20, Steven, 18, Danielle, 15, Dean, 12, Ashleigh 11, James, eight, Reagan, six, Brooklyn, four and Suzanne's baby, Charlie. They receive £23,000-a-year in benefits.

They live in a six-bedroom, two-bathroom council house in Malton Avenue, Hulton Lane, and pay no rent or council tax.

But Mrs Brooks said: "I do everything for my children."

She admitted she has had problems getting her children, particularly Danielle, Dean and Ashleigh, to go school. Each has missed several weeks in the past 12 months, but Mrs Brooks says the situation has improved.

She said: "If your daughter or son refused to get up in the morning, what would you do?

"How can it be the parent's fault when they take the kid to school in the morning but they don't turn up in the afternoon?"

She now believes their attendance record is getting better but says it it due to work by the family, not help from social workers.

She said: "We did it ourselves so we have got ourselves to thank."

She is particularly upset about her unemployed former landscape gardener husband Steve, aged 43, being branded a layabout. She insists he is a good father.

Mr Brooks' sister, Elaine, said:"They do their utmost for those kids. They are with them 24-7, taking them on holiday and making sure they are well dressed.

"Their money doesn't go on drugs or beer. They would never go into a pub. People who know them will stand by them."

In the past 12 months, Ashleigh, Dean and Danielle have each missed at least seven weeks of school.

But Mrs Brooks, aged 38, has claimed she is not to blame.

She says in the documentary: "I think the Government is just trying to push it on to the parents because it doesn't know what else to do."

A spokesman for Bolton Council said: "Bolton Council's Education Social Work service has been involved with the family since January, 2004.

"It has put in place a number of strategies to support them with limited success.

"Work is continuing with the family and legal proceedings remain an option."