First 1,001 Days: Government view

Yet even as the government seeks to identify gaps in available provision and make recommendations on how co-ordination across departments can be improved, the need to make the case loud and clear about the importance of joined-up services is greater than ever.

This year, the Commons has already seen three important select committee reports highlight the moral and financial imperative for giving every baby the best possible start in life. More and more parliamentarians are acknowledging that intervening earlier saves both money and lives - by preventing social, health and even criminality problems in later life.

The government has already taken a range of steps to address these issues. The new NHS Long Term Plan will expand provision for quality mental health support for new and expectant mothers and their families. An extra 30,000 women will access these services by 2021. The NHS England's Maternity Transformation Programme is delivering on the Health Secretary's ambition to make the NHS one of the best places in the world to give birth by offering mothers and babies better support. There is up to £39m being invested to reduce harmful levels of parental conflict through evidence-based intervention, to promote better outcomes for children. And as my colleague Nadhim Zahawi has highlighted, his department is investing around £6bn by 2020 in childcare support - including 15 hours per week of free early education for disadvantaged two-year-olds.

At the same time, the ministerial group I was asked to chair by the Prime Minister last year has been working at pace to identify gaps in existing provision. For the first time, ministerial voices are contributing from different departments, helping to address the cross-cutting nature of the issues. We have been, and will continue to, listen carefully to the views of those on the frontline of service delivery, parents and academies.

As we have done so a number of tensions have emerged. There is clearly a need for universal provision, but this will always need to be topped up by high-quality targeted services. We've been hearing from different families about what they need, and different examples of delivery. We've seen a variety of great examples, including the superb one-stop shop children's centres that I've seen in places like Manchester and Lambeth. These are wonderful - but they wouldn't necessarily work for a rural village in Cornwall, or for a new mum who is unable to drive following a difficult birth or a C-Section. It is not enough to make each service accessible - they should also be accessible to people where they need it.

Then there are the questions of how we help families identify the services that can help them, and how to ensure best practice. The ministerial group is considering these issues carefully and we will bring forward our recommendations on how to address these points soon.

It's also important to acknowledge that the experiences of families are shaped by a wide range of factors. Each family will encounter different challenges or stresses and - as such - will require different services. Family Action introduced me, for example, to a lovely couple and their beautiful six-month-old. They explained that living in temporary accommodation and learning to speak English were both having an effect on their parenting. For that family the pressures of their particular circumstances were having a very real impact.

On the flip side, one mum on our Mumsnet forum wrote that her local services offered support for parents looking to learn English or recover from an addiction - but all she really wanted was to be introduced to, and supported by, a group of like-minded mums. What really matters, in all these cases, is the local and individual context.

The ministerial group's recommendations will reflect on what we've heard from local families and seen in local services and will pave the way for meaningful change by doing so. Realising our ambitions will ultimately rest on the delivery of quality local services. Ministers can lead this change - and we will - but we will need the support of practitioners on the ground. That's why I encourage all those reading this to make their voices heard. Together we are making the case for why services that support early years families matters; now we must make the case for why those services must be joined up, too.