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Thanks, Isabelle (Trowler), and a very warm welcome to you all.

And it鈥檚 great to see so many of you here and from so many different walks of life - from councils, charities, schools, the health service and youth justice - reflecting, I鈥檓 sure, the profound commitment we all have, right across society, to securing a brighter future for our most vulnerable children.

Now, like you, I鈥檓 here for one reason and for one reason only: to see how we can better serve these children鈥檚 needs and give them the love, support and opportunities we want for our own children.

As many of you know, I grew up with around 90 foster children - two of whom we adopted - and then went on to spend a decade as a family lawyer in the care system.

So I know, first-hand, how many of you are prepared to go the extra mile, often in the most desperate circumstances, to help children who鈥檝e known so much hurt and heartbreak. In that endeavour, I can鈥檛 tell you how thankful I am for everything you do.

And, indeed, there鈥檚 already some really excellent work underway that鈥檚 turning around the most troubled lives. But as we know, this remains too patchy, with the prospects of children in care still lagging well behind their peers.

And like you, I want to see excellence spread far and wide to truly lift their life chances. To see faster improvements, better value for money, bigger, more sustained gains. A relentless determination to do whatever it takes to make us all proud in being able to deliver consistently outstanding care for all children, whatever their circumstances.

Which means doing things differently. Looking afresh at the issues. Being open to new ideas. Removing the blocks holding us back.

Inspiring, supporting and challenging each other to break new ground and do better - and not just when things are going wrong, as is too often the case, but when they鈥檙e going right.

And it鈥檚 important to state from the outset that this is far from being just a drive from government.

Building on the Munro report, I know that many of you - in councils, charities and other organisations - have also come to the conclusion that we must think differently if we want to raise our game.

Which is why we鈥檙e looking to extend the freedom that local authorities have to delegate social care functions to mutuals, community interest companies and other not-for-profit organisations, or indeed to other local authorities.

In the past, you only tended to hear from us when we were intervening when there was failure. This is something completely different.

It鈥檚 about giving you the permission to decide how to deliver services so that they鈥檙e the best they can be for our most needy children - with the same safeguards and accountabilities still in place.

It鈥檚 about spurring innovation from the bottom up to make adequate services good, and good services outstanding; indeed, outstanding services even better - rather than just imposing innovation from the top down when there鈥檚 failure.

But above all, it鈥檚 about trusting social workers to innovate and raise standards, to do the job they came into the profession to do - as we trust other professionals in health and education.

I want all of you on the front line to be in the driving seat, showing us how you can do what you do even better when we unshackle you to redesign services that unashamedly put children鈥檚 needs first.

How - and even if - you use these freedoms is entirely in your hands. You鈥檙e the innovators here.

And I鈥檓 in no doubt that there鈥檚 a really fantastic opportunity here to increase the capacity of the system and the diversity and quality of services available. So I urge you to seize the potential the innovation programme offers.

As you鈥檒l have heard me say before, this programme aims to help develop and spread new, more effective ways of supporting vulnerable children. There鈥檚 拢30 million available this year and much more to follow next year, if the ideas are there to merit it.

We want people from every area - local authorities, schools, businesses, not-for-profit bodies - to come forward with their boldest, most ambitious ideas. We鈥檒l help develop, test, implement and expand the most promising schemes; providing whatever tailored support is needed. And we鈥檒l help build the evidence base, so that we can all learn from what works and what doesn鈥檛.

We鈥檝e decided to focus particularly on two areas: rethinking support for adolescents in or on the edge of care, and rethinking how children鈥檚 social work operates, knowing that some of you here have some interesting ideas about how we can go about doing just this.

Staffordshire, for example, - which has been at the forefront of calls for greater freedoms - wants to deliver its children鈥檚 services through a third-party organisation like a mutual or a social enterprise. They鈥檙e confident this approach will allow them to unleash their staff鈥檚 creative instincts, to focus more on outcomes and give young people and their families a bigger say in shaping services.

And I鈥檝e seen for myself - just two months ago - how the Evolve YP social work practice in Staffordshire has used this approach to reap considerable improvements in social work delivery, recognised by their recent good Ofsted judgment. So there are real reasons to be optimistic about their plans.

But proposals don鈥檛 have to involve delivering services outside the local authority. In fact, we expect that many of the projects we fund will be about transforming things in house.

The Triborough local authorities in London, for instance, want to completely redesign their entire children鈥檚 social care system from within, and from top to bottom, so that professionals can spend more time with children and families and so that practice is rooted in greater expertise and evidence. Part of these changes involve using detailed modelling and tracking to identify and support children at greatest risk of coming into care as adolescents.

And I鈥檓 delighted to announce today that this is the first major project that we鈥檝e decided to support. We鈥檙e putting in 拢4 million of funding from the programme in recognition of Triborough鈥檚 truly impressive ambition and the opportunity it offers to test a new way of doing things and blaze a trail for others.

As one manager there commented last week, 鈥淲e鈥檙e simply thrilled. It鈥檚 the first time ever that government has given us money and really allowed us to think for ourselves. The Innovation Programme is a brilliant thing.鈥�

And I hope Triborough鈥檚 success inspires you all to come forward with other ingenious and enterprising schemes. I hope the hall today is already buzzing with these sorts of ideas - and if not, it will be by the end of the day! Because today鈥檚 event is all about inspiring and exploring these ideas, forging alliances and giving us compelling reasons to work with you and fund your plans.

And there鈥檚 no room for reticence, because we鈥檝e already been working with a number of innovators to develop their ideas into full proposals and are now launching guidance to help others to come forward.

So don鈥檛 miss out, or get left behind.

As for bids, they鈥檙e being assessed against clear criteria including the potential to improve outcomes, value for money and the capacity of an organisation to deliver.

Those that make it through will be supported and challenged by a team of coaches and specialists to run with the idea, make sure it鈥檚 ambitious and genuinely pushing the boundaries.

And then, if they clear this hurdle, proposals will be considered by our investment board, which includes Isabelle Trowler, the Chief Social Worker, Alan Wood from ADCS, and Clive Cowdery from the Resolution Foundation and a tireless champion for the programme.

I should add that we鈥檝e specifically designed the programme in a way that keeps the process as simple and straightforward as possible, in an attempt to avoid a convoluted procurement exercise that can slow down and frustrate many of those wanting to get involved and get on with it.

I also want to say how immensely grateful I am for the investment board鈥檚 input, as I am to Councillor David Simmonds from the LGA and Debbie Jones from Ofsted for engaging with the programme and for agreeing to be guests on our panel later this morning.

At this final stage, the board will be looking for ideas that are genuinely transformative - for young people鈥檚 life chances and the way the system, as a whole, responds to their needs.

So please don鈥檛 hold back. Think big. Really go for it. Don鈥檛 underestimate our appetite to support daring leaps or something that demands flexibility in how regulations or statutory guidance is applied. As I said earlier, we all need to think differently, including central government.

This is not about business as usual - but I know that none of us would be here today if we were satisfied with the status quo.

The fact there鈥檚 so much passion and expertise in this room and beyond, that we must do much more to harness, so that we leave no stone unturned to give our neediest children the best possible start in life.

So I hope you鈥檒l find the event useful as well as acting as a catalyst for your own ideas, to help them formulate and flourish. And in doing so, ask yourself, when did a government minister last come to me and tell me that the ball really is in my court and back it with millions of pounds of funding? As the Triborough has already shown, this opportunity is there to be seized. And I鈥檓 confident that together we can grab it both hands. Thank you.