Although in many ways children and young people today are safer than previous generations, with accident rates and sudden infant deaths for example down, we also have to recognise that the society we’re living in has changed and is changing all the time. We’ve got different family structures, more diverse communities, and we’ve got new technologies are all broadening our horizons and opening up opportunity. But also posing new challenges for safety.

I want to start, if I may, with special needs. They rarely get mentioned in speeches by schools Ministers to teacher conferences, but as Minister with responsibility for special educational needs there is no cause more important to me, or indeed to the 1.6 million pupils with special needs and their parents, who are often struggling against serious challenges and need our full support.

If we want to make real progress on social mobility, we must strike early, and we must strike effectively. We have an opportunity with a new generation to break the link between circumstances at birth and future prospects - and that means working in close partnership with parents.

In conclusion, the report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights has highlighted a number of concerns and made a number of recommendations. Many of those have been taken on board by the Government, and we will have more to say in due course. We must not forget, however, that not only do we have to protect the physical safety of all those who live and work at custodial institutions, but we must protect the safety of the environment at such institutions to ensure that we give all young people in custody the best chance to live normal lives once they come out of the system.

Once again, I thank the hon. Member for Buckingham for his excellent work on these important issues. His review challenges us to support local areas and front-line professionals in transforming the lives and prospects of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs, and we will do our utmost to meet the challenge that he has set for us.

I’m fully behind today’s manifesto, and I accept the challenge it sets the Government. Because I think we’d all agree that, at the moment, opportunities to enjoy the arts and culture aren’t shared out as evenly as we would like. There is an ‘arts gap’ that we need to close. We’ve got to give all children the chance to ‘catch’ the culture bug, and keep it with them into adulthood.

For me, this title demonstrates how far we’ve already come, as well as how far we still have to go. It points to our shared recognition of what poverty does to our children, and to our equally shared conviction that we must do something about them – and that we can. Not just by working hard to heal the harm done – important though that is – but even more by avoiding children being hurt in the first place. So today I want to focus on what I think is required of us all, locally and in central Government, in pursuing your conference theme.

Building Schools for the Future is the most ambitious programme of investing in our schools for more than a generation, and despite the reservations and concerns expressed by the hon. Gentleman, it will be well received and will be seen as one of the great achievements of this Government

Hi, I’m Jim Knight, Minister for Schools. I had hoped to be here in person, but parliamentary procedure unfortunately prevented me. Sadly the technology for me to vote remotely has not yet been developed. Perhaps that is a good thing... So my apologies for not attending in person. But at least I can use the technology to appear before you virtually. If anyone was in any doubt, it is a visual illustration of technological developments and the positive benefits for society: traders can conduct business with anyone from anywhere across the globe, doctors and nurses can diagnose and cure more patients with state of the art machines, and I can be in two places at once.

We want a society where all young people believe – with good reason – that anything is possible, that they can achieve great things no matter what their background. And in this part of the country, we’ve got a big opportunity to blaze a trail – to show the rest of the country how it’s done.

Despite what my hon. Friend said about the area of the country that I represent, I was brought up in this city, but in outer London rather than inner London. Our capital city is, as she described it, a paradox of wealth and disadvantage in close proximity. It is an international powerhouse of business, innovation and economic success, yet it houses some of the most deprived areas in the country. The Government are committed to treating those pockets and concentrations of deprivation to lift people out of poverty through education, among other things, give them the opportunities to succeed and ensure that those opportunities are for all, not just luck of the draw. That is what this Government stands for: removing the juxtaposition of privilege and disadvantage that exists not only in our London communities, but can exist as a division between our schools, too. I am grateful to all hon. Members for paying tribute to the London Challenge programme, which has gone a long way to making that happen.

It requires discipline and rigour to make music successfully. And so too to run a successful music service. That is why Dick Hallam will be working with you to agree concrete plans to increase the participation rate in key stage 2 instrumental music from the projected 50% for 2008 to 100% by 2011. It is also essential that we do all we can to sustain participation, which is why we are suggesting that you should aim to see at least 50% of children choosing to continue learning a musical instrument into a second year.

Every child deserves chance to make the most of their potential and we can only make this happen if teacher have the knowledge, understanding and skills to identify pupils’ learning needs at an early stage and adapt their teaching to meet those needs.

Can I first thank Peter Williams for his impressive presentation today, and also for the immense amount of work he and his colleagues have put into the report on Maths teaching published today. Here again, Celia Hoyles played an important role, and I would also like to thank Professor Janet Ainley, Laurie Jacques, Sir Jim Rose, and Brenda Spencer. It is an excellent report. I am delighted today to accept all ten of its recommendations, and my team at the department has already begun work on their implementation.

The proposal in the Bill is very sensible; that is, children with special educational needs should be specifically taken into account as the Secretary of State exercises his powers in relation to gathering data. It is my department’s highest priority that all barriers to education should be removed for all children, whether they arise from physical, financial, or family circumstances. It is even more imperative for those who are already set at a disadvantage against their peers, including the 570,000 children living with a disability and the 1.6 million children with special educational needs.

In my line of learning-related work I’m always keen to celebrate work-related learning... But historically, it hasn’t always been the case that young people’s encounters with the workplace have been positive. We only have to look back through literature for colourful illustrations – the Victorian workhouses and chimney sweep trade in Dickens; young men following their fathers down the mines as in Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier; young people locked into their family trade, as Seamus Heaney’s ancestors had been. In those worlds, it was difficult to break out of the vocational sphere. The road was narrow, and the path was for life. Those worlds are a far cry from the global industries and shining towers that surround us here in Canary Wharf. Of men and women confidently following their chosen career path, and achieving what they are capable of.

Over and above school improvements, we also need a more relevant work-related curriculum for teenagers who would benefit from it; we need new and better vocational courses and qualifications to lead on to more and better apprenticeships; and we need better advice and guidance for young people as they make decisions about the choices available beyond the age of 14. Together with higher school standards, it is on this basis that it is right and credible to raise the education and training participation age.