Balls should recognise 'grown-up Baby Ps'

Resolutions the sector would like to see include: ring-fencing money to help early years settings pay for the free places three- and four-year-olds are entitled to, ensuring children and young people have the time and space to play, starting a debate on child imprisonment and the extension of the right to professional development to the entire children's workforce.

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said Balls could take a step towards ending the imprisonment of children by having a open debate on the issue with colleagues and the wider public. "The most important thing is moral and political leadership to recognise that children who get caught up in the criminal justice process are grown-up Baby Ps," she said. "They are just as needy and vulnerable as Baby P was but because they have had things go wrong they need special help. The fundamental problem is that prison is no place for children."