The battle against classroom bullies shifted up a gear today as the Government launched a "zero tolerance" drive to help schools tackle the problem.

Anti-bullying experts are to be stationed across England to help schools as part of the new Anti-Bullying Alliance.

So far more than 4,000 schools have signed up to the Alliance's charter, which aims to widen channels of communication between victims of bullying, school staff, local education authorities and parents to stop children suffering bullying slipping through the net.

Education Minister Ivan Lewis, who was bullied at school himself and was left frustrated at the lack of support he was offered, said there is a ''culture of bullying'' at too many schools and the only option is to enforce a zero tolerance policy.

Speaking at the launch of the ABA at a London conference, he said: ''This must never become about blame or about saying all schools are bad. It's about taking responsibility in terms of creating the kind of environment children can flourish in.

''Bullying is not acceptable, it's not character-building, it's not part of the rough and tumble of growing up.

''If you allow bullying behaviour to take place without any consequences, then these young people become adults, they become parents, they become work colleagues and continue to engage in bullying behaviour throughout their lives without ever being held to account.

''The stakes are very high for the victims, for the communities, and even for the bullies.

''This really is an attempt to change culture. It really is about creating a zero tolerance approach at every school.''

Under the Alliance the anti-bullying experts, who will serve each of the nine English government office regions, will work with teachers, schools and local education authorities, encouraging them to offer services such as counselling to victims.

In particularly bad cases they will act as mediators when ''all other avenues to resolve the bullying have been exhausted''.

And they will develop new methods to tackle the rising tide of modern forms of bullying by text messaging, email and via internet chatrooms.

Schools will also be assessed on how they are putting their anti-bullying measures into action by Ofsted inspectors from September this year.

But Mr Lewis stressed that the only way that bullying can be stamped out is if everyone at the school is trained to deal with it, to eliminate the current problem faced by many schools where victims are not helped because staff are passing the buck or have their hands tied by the LEA.

He said: ''The danger is you say this person is responsible for dealing with bullying in the school so everybody abdicates responsibility. We have to have a culture where everybody in the school, from the headteacher to the dinner lady, is trained to understand it.

''I think this is part of being a good professional. I do not accept that this is an added burden to the job. It's absolutely essential.''