I hope you’ve all had a productive day so far. We’ve had some interesting discussions and debate.

And that’s what this day is all about – taking some time out of our hectic day jobs to reflect on where we are, and how we will shape the future of children’s services in this country.

I know that everyone in this room is committed to improving the lives of children, young people and families – and the quality of the services we provide to them – to make sure that this country is the best place in the world for our young people to grow up. Where they are healthy, having fun, and ready to learn.

My colleague Beverley Hughes spoke to you this morning about the important role that Children’s Trusts play in driving system reform, integrated working, and high standards across the children’s services.

Structures are important, but what has become candidly clear to me from doing this job is what makes the biggest difference to children is the people in their lives. Of course, to young people, the ‘workforce’ as a concept doesn’t really mean that much and probably not much to parents either. To children, it constitutes their teacher, their family doctor, or perhaps a social worker, and other significant adults in their lives.

They are the ones forming those all-important relationships with young people. And we need to help them to do that.

Children’s needs don’t take any notice of professional boundaries, and that’s why it’s important that those boundaries are invisible to children and young people. 

So I have a vision of the children’s workforce as a team – Team Every Child Matters if you like, whether we’re teachers, social workers, health practitioners, local leaders, or indeed government ministers.

When I look back on my own time as a teacher, I think there was a tendency to focus too narrowly on what was going on in the classroom. I considered what happened beyond, to some extent, to be someone else’s business.

But that’s no longer good enough. As Ed Balls said earlier, the distinction between attainment and wellbeing is a false one.

A child who has to come to school without breakfast is not going to be able to concentrate properly. Where there are pressures at home, learning will be affected.

And a child with a learning difficulty will not be able to make good progress towards their full potential without the additional support they need.

I think we’ve seen a real culture change over the last decade.  If we could step into the Tardis and go back 10 years I’ve no doubt that we would all notice the difference immediately. Services are getting better at communicating with one another, and schools are opening their doors to other services so that they can be more easily accessed by parents and young people.

We need to take that process even further. At the moment, the national picture of joined up working remains patchy.

Some places are doing it really well.

I visited Sutton Temple Primary School in Southend recently, which was operating as a focal point of its community, with a range of other services on site for parents and youngsters alike. There was even a small police station!  I think I would have found that quite handy when I was teaching Form 3B on a wet Wednesday afternoon!

But the atmosphere was one of openness, collaboration and respect. It was not just a school, but a learning community. A place where nurturing children’s talents and development came from all sides, not just teachers.  That is the sort of picture we want to see everywhere.

As leaders in your local areas, you are in a unique position to bring professionals together, to ensure that young people’s views are listened and responded to, and to galvanise local government so that children’s issues are right at the top of their list of priorities.

Bringing people together in a strategic way, joining up services, and making the most of the resources at our disposal is the best way that we can respond to different local needs.

One of the challenges you will face is how best to use the additional £100m of funding over the next 3 years,  announced last November, for the national expansion of Parent Support Advisers. 

Many of you will have seen Sir Alan Steer’s initial review of behaviour published on 26 March. He has welcomed the development of Parent Support Advisers.

However, he was also concerned that the funding would not have the right impact if spread too thinly and absorbed into other spending needs.

In his view the additional funds should be concentrated in those schools where they are needed most.  We’re sympathetic to that view and will be writing to all DCSs in relation to this subject in the near future.

The professional development framework that we are publishing today – for managers and leaders of children’s services – is intended to help to bring people together in that strategic way I mentioned.

It articulates the abilities and attributes that leaders need in order to deliver integrated services, and helps all those who work with children to work towards senior management positions, regardless of their professional backgrounds.

But it’s not all about the leaders.  We also want to help you develop the skills of the people who work on the front line.  After all, they have the most direct and personal influence on children and their families.

That is the focus of our next steps document, also published today. It has two prime objectives:

First, to look at the children’s workforce as it stands, and to set out the context for future development, including the focus of the new Expert Group.

The Group will bring together the expertise of champions from all the different parts of the children’s workforce in order to help us as we develop our strategy for the children’s workforce. 

I am delighted that Maggie Atkinson has agreed to chair the group, in conjunction with Jim Knight and myself.

And second, to set out measures we have already developed to support the skills and capacity in certain parts of the workforce.

We are investing almost £73 million over the next three years to improve the quality of the social care workforce.

That will include schemes to promote the social work profession to high-achieving graduates, to set out clear career pathways in the field, and improve the level of training and support before and during a social work career.

And, through the Children’s Workforce Development Council, we are investing £7.5 million pounds over the next three years to help shape the play workforce in the years to come, in line with our recent commitments in the Children’s Plan, including the training of 4,000 play workers.

In response to parents’ views about the need for more safe places for children to play, we committed £225 million to develop play facilities over the next three years – the biggest ever investment in this area. 

And today, we are adding another £10 million to the pot.  And we are announcing the names of 20 local authority play pathfinders and a further 44 playbuilders, who will begin using that money to develop play facilities in their local areas.

Today also marks the launch of our play strategy consultation, which will continue the national dialogue as we develop play facilities.

Engaging families and communities is at the heart of the programme, and part of our wider objective to support wellbeing, growth and opportunities for all young people.

So I would urge all of you to support the consultation.

All of the measures we have announced today are intended to start a debate, about how we can get the best out of the services at our disposal – what we’re doing well, where we need to make improvements, and what the landscape of children’s services is likely to look like in the future.

I hope you will come away from today with ideas and suggestions to take back to your organisations and localities, and use them as a basis for local discussions and evaluation, to start to think about how we might drive up standards in our local areas even further, to meet the ambition to make our children’s services world class.

If we are to truly make a difference, we need to be flexible in our approach, to consider, shape and adapt our activity to reflect local priorities, structures and resources.

You, as local leaders, must drive that process.

I am confident that, through the Children’s Plan, and the measures we have introduced today, we can set every child on the path to success. I ask you, in local areas, to lead the culture change that is necessary to achieve that.

Thank you