GOVERNMENT intervention in family life is justified because it enables parents to do “the best for their children”, Margaret Hodge, the Children’s Minister, said yesterday. She likened the State to an extended family and defended its right to meddle in the home.

Her nanny state overtones are expected to be repeated in a speech today at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Mrs Hodge said the Government had a role in children’s upbringing. “There is a proper role for the State in helping parents in the home,” she said in a newspaper interview. “In the past, people got support from the extended family; now they are looking elsewhere.” The State could be a force for good, allowing families to do the best for their children, she said.

“There are always tensions between the liberty of the individual and the wider interests of society, but the State has a role. Parenting in the home is crucial.” For example, the NHS had to deal with the effects of mothers feeding their children nothing but chips. She said that intervention was justified because the State had to pick up the pieces if parenting went wrong. “If children are taken into care, then we have failed, the State has to go in at the beginning and help.

“It’s not just about reading to your child. All the evidence is that if you sing to your child, if you talk to your child, then they do better. If you’re just watching the telly or chatting to your friend on the mobile phone rather than talking to your baby, then your child is not going to prosper.”

Many families wanted advice from the Government on child-rearing, she said. “You take home this little bundle of joy from the hospital and you don’t know where to start. People want the State to help them.”

Her comments precede a government campaign to improve the way parents bring up children. A booklet on how to raise a child will be published by the Department for Education and Skills and given to all new parents. It will offer information about healthy diets and “top tips” on television viewing habits, reading to children and teaching them about sex.

Mrs Hodge is also trying to enlist soap opera writers to the cause, with storylines showing the importance of discipline, safety and education. “Parents have to set boundaries,” she said. “We need to support parents in setting the boundaries.”

Taking the traditional line, she said that ministers should not be afraid of taking a moral lead by claiming that marriage was the best context for rearing children.

“Stability really matters for kids and people are more likely to stay together if they are married,” she said. “Without a childcare infrastructure, there’s no real choice.”

Next week the Government is expected to promise a big spending increase on nursery and childminder places.

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