Ed Balls MP, Labour's Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has set out new measures Labour is taking to give every child a fair chance in life:

- Building on our work to tackle bullying, Ed Balls said that all incidents of bullying should be properly recorded in every school. Schools will also record all incidents of verbal or physical attacks on teachers.

- Together with Labour's Health Secretary Alan Johnson, Ed Balls announced plans to trial free school meals for all primary school children.

- As part of our drive to raise school standards and ensure every school is a good school, Ed Balls announced the first three National Challenge Trust schools, which will each get up to £1 million of new investment to help schools collaborate together to drive up standards. In addition he announced 65 new Trust schools, with partners including The National Trust, St Helens Rugby Club and Warwick University .

- To ensure that every teacher has the time to focus on what they do best - inspiring and teaching young people - and to further raise school standards, Ed Balls announced he will legislate to ensure all schools comply with the existing workload agreement which, for example, gives teachers guaranteed time away from the classroom to plan and prepare lessons.

- As support staff are vital to our schools, Ed Balls announced that he will legislate for a new statutory body to agree a new and flexible framework for their terms and conditions.

- And a new independent way of handling parents' complaints will be piloted to ensure the process is more open and fair for all.

Ed B alls also set out the fundamental differences between Labour and David Cameron's Conservatives, who have opposed Labour's education reforms including raising the education and training age to 18 and Diplomas and are committed to cuts to Sure Start and Labour's school building programme.

He said: "Let us tell the country, this is the choice: The Tories determined to preserve excellence for those who have it. Labour committed to open up excellence and opportunity for all."

Full speech follows

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Thank you, Chair.

Conference, it's a great privilege to open this education debate.

To thank the Policy Commission and Party staff for all their work over the last year.

And let us today reaffirm our mission - our Labour mission - that:

- Every child should have the best possible start in life;

- And that all young people should have a fair chance to go as far as their talents can t ake them.

Every child - that is our moral cause.

And - as that powerful video reminds us - fair chances also means that no child should be bullied or held back because of their race, their disability or their sexuality.

Conference, last year I asked you to support our campaign to end bullying of every kind in every school.

And since then we have acted:

- to tackle bullying of children with disabilities and special educational needs;

- to crack down on cyberbullying with mobile phones and on the internet - not just bullying of children, but teachers too;

- and we have published our first ever guidance to help schools tackle homophobic bullying.

And we will do more - so Kevin Brennan is this week announcing that we will ensure all incidents of bullying are properly recorded in every school.

So let us today recognise the work of:

- the Young Anti-Bullying Alliance;

- and the thousands of teachers and millions of children round the country who have joined the campaign.

Conference, let us reaffirm today our determination to stamp out bullying once and for all.

Because I know it can be done.

I have seen it in schools all round the country, like Seven Kings High - a comprehensive in Ilford:

- A school where discipline is tough and bullying is not tolerated;

- A school with great leadership, at the centre of its community - with parents fully involved, and services like health and family advice located on site;

- A school where each and every child is enabled and expected to succeed.

Because breaking down all the barriers that hold children back - in and out of the classroom.

Teachers, parents and professionals intervening early to prevent young people falling behind or going down the wrong track.

That is the vision of our Children's Plan.

And it demands a new way of joint working across government.

Alan Johnson and I are working together on the first ever child health strategy. And today we are announcing that we will now trial in deprived communities free school meals for all primary school children - because we want the opportunity to have a healthy hot lunch at school not just for some children, but for every child.

And joint working too:

- with Jacqui Smith and Jack Straw to tackle and prevent youth crime as we invest in youth services;

- with John Denham to get 50,000 more 16 and 17 year olds starting an apprenticeship every year;

- with Andy Burnham on the biggest ever investment in children's play and school sport;

- with Alistair Darling and James Purnell as we take forward our historic commitment to end child poverty.

Confer ence, this is Gordon Brown's Labour Cabinet working together so that every child can succeed.

You know, people say to Yvette and me, it must be hard for you both doing the jobs you do and with three young children.

But it's no harder than it is for working people in every part of Britain - who work hard and try to do their best for their children.

All parents find it hard to balance work and family life.

But as Ruth Kelly has reminded us today, there is no more important job in the world than being a parent.

And while I'm clear it's parents - not government - who bring up children.

I'm also clear that this Party will back all families - whatever their shape or size.

And while it's tough being a parent, it's even tougher being a parent of a disabled child.

That's why we are investing £430 million to transform services and provide short breaks for disabled children and their families.

Because we want eve ry disabled child to have the best start in life too.

Conference, this has not been an easy few weeks.

But if you want to know what a Labour government really stands for, just look at our reforms starting this September alone:

- new standards for high quality early years childcare pioneered by our Children's Minister Beverley Hughes;

- one to one tuition and catch-up classes for all children falling behind in maths, reading and writing;

- our new diplomas - as we seek to end once and for all the historic and damaging divide between academic and vocational learning;

- over 180 new or rebuilt schools, including 47 new academies, more new schools opened this September than any September for over thirty years;

- and most important of all, every 11 year old starting secondary school this month will stay in education after 16 - in school, colle ge, training or an apprenticeship.

Education to 18 for all:

A dream which the Labour, trade union and co-operative movement has aspired to for more than a century.

Now a reality delivered by Gordon Brown's Labour government.

And what do all these reforms have in common?

- They're ambitious

- They're economically essential

- None of them would have happened without this Labour government

- None of them will happen without the hard work of public servants

- And every single one of these vital reforms is opposed by the Tories.

So when David Cameron talks about "Progressive ends, Conservative means",

Let us say what Conservative really means:

- Education to 18 for some - but not for all

- No to our Diplomas

- No to fair admissions

- No to our investment in Sure Start Children's Centres

- And with their pledge to cut £4.5 billion from our school building programme: No to 360 new schools being planned in every part of the country.

That is the reality of David Cameron's so-called progressive education policy.

And when we hear the Tories claiming to care about the link between poverty and attainment, let us say:

You can't pretend you support the ends and then oppose every reform and the investment needed to get there.

Look past the camouflage: David Cameron's warm words and vague aspirations will not help a single child out of poverty.

But the billion pounds of extra investment in this year's Budget will lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty - and Conservative MPs voted against the measures we took to pay for it.

Conference - we know the truth.

We know whose side they are reall y on.

And when we hear Tories say:

- That they oppose raising the education leaving age to 18

- That we shouldn't be enforcing the Admissions Code for parents

- That we don't need more young people going to university

Let us ask them:

- Who are the children they think should leave education at 16?

- Who are the families they would deny a fair chance to go to the school of their choice?

- Who are the young people they think don't need to go to university?

- Who are the children they would leave behind?

These opportunities should not just be for some children in some families.

They should be the right of every child in every community of our country.

And when the Tories claim that the moment excellence goes beyond the few, it just isn't excellence any more,

Let us tell the country, this is the choice:

Between a Conservative Party determined to preserve excellence for those who have it and a Labour government committed to open up excellence and opportunity for all.

So let us take the fight to the Tories and expose this choice in every constituency of our country.

And when the Tories run down the achievements of our young people, when David Cameron claims Britain is â€Ëœbroken' and blames young people in more deprived communities and their parents, I say:

Britain is not broken.

Let us never give David Cameron the chance to break it.

So Conference, now is not the time to give up or back away, but to press ahead with our investment and reform.

It is because we believe that every child can succeed, that our National Challenge will ensure every local school is a good school with £400m of ex tra support to make it happen.

The first National Challenge Trusts we are announcing today, each getting up to a million pounds of new investment, will help schools collaborate together to drive up standards.

Andrew Adonis and I are accelerating our academies programme - a progressive Labour policy that in community after community is breaking the link between poverty and attainment.


And because we know that when mums and dads are involved in their children's education, their children do better:

* Jim Knight is ensuring all parents can get regular updates on their child's progress by mobile phone or internet - and home computer access for all;


* we will now consult on strengthening the complaints procedures for parents;


* we are investigating how testing can better track the individual progress of every child;


* and to ensure more parents have a say in the setting up and running of local schools we will now create a new generation of co-operative trust schools, rooted in their communities and committed to getting the best for every child.


And we know too we cannot succeed without the professionalism and dedication of public servants.

Teaching assistants, dinner ladies, cleaners and caretakers - all our support staff are vital to our schools. So we will now legislate for a statutory body to agree a new and flexible framework for their terms and conditions.

And we must also do more to recognise the professionalism of teachers.

Ofsted says this is the best generation of teachers we have ever had.

And I am proud that once again teachers are now valued for their professionalism and their dedication and the fantastic job they do.

We are the Party that is investing in teachers and supporting their progress - so our aim is that all new teachers can study for a Masters, with more of the best graduates coming into teaching.

And that is why too, through the work of our Partnership, we will now legislate to ensure every teacher and headteacher has the time to focus on what they do best - inspiring and teaching our young people.

I have seen it so many times over the last year around the country.

Teaching is a moral cause:

Every child has potential.

And with the right support, every child can succeed - no matter where they come from or what barriers they face.

And that is our moral cause too.

I am proud to be the Labour and Co-operative MP for Normanton - continuously Labour since 1885, with the Rhonda Valley the longest continuously Labour seat in our country.

I am the ninth MP for Normanton.

And my predecessors were all coal miners - every one of them.

But they were Labour.

Because the adversity they suffered taught them not selfishness but solidarity.

And they never settled for second best for themselves or their communities, as they fought for proper rights at work , for free health care, for full employment, for education for all.

But Conference, between 1979 and 1997, that fine Labour tradition did not do my constituents any good at all:

- It did not stop public services being slashed

- It did not stop three million unemployed

- It did not stop the pits closing

- It did not stop child poverty doubling

It did not stop a Tory government.

It was only when in 1997 - in marginal seats around the country - new Labour MPs were elected on a manifesto of stability and investment and a determination to meet the rising aspirations of the British people;

It was only then that in Normanton, my constituents could benefit from the New Deal jobs programme, tax credits to reduce poverty and record investment in local public services.

So yes, these are tough times - for the economy and for our Party

But if our histo ry teaches us anything, it teaches us this:

- stay united

- focus on our mission

- take the fight to the Tories.

Yes, we owe it to our predecessors.

But - more than that - we owe it to our families and to future generations:

- to complete their work

- to give every child a fair chance in life

- and - even in difficult times - build a Britain of economic strength and social justice of which we can all be proud.

Resolute, united, determined.

Let us stay the course.

And finish the job.