THE reality of busy 21st-century life means that it can be difficult to find enough hours in the day to fit everything in, so joining up vital services and making them easier to access is the order of the day. That is why I am delighted that my organisation – Partnerships for Schools – is managing a £200m fund on behalf of the Government to co-locate services for children and young people which will help transform lives and regenerate communities.

There are 101 projects across England which will benefit from this funding, including children’s centres, careers advice, youth clubs, health services, including mental health, drug and alcohol treatment centres, family support services, Combined Cadet Force facilities, and independent housing for young people leaving care to help their transition into longer-term, more permanent accommodation.

Nearly £15.5m in funding has been awarded to eight local authorities in the North West, which will go towards co-location projects such as Stockbridge Village Children and Family Campus, in north Huyton, which will provide integrated education, children, family and health services with a youth centre and library.

The Co-location Fund and the projects it will support reflects how people live their lives, so that, in the future, communities will be able to access healthcare alongside education, and sporting facilities alongside libraries. I look forward to working with the successful local authorities and projects in the North West and to charting their progress.

Tim Byles, CBE, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools

Children at risk

I AM utterly furious at Warren Bradley's Lib-Dems for opposing the ContactPoint system.

As your lead column said, ContactPoint “as a tool for protecting children is a welcome development”. That, for me, overrides any political point Bradley is trying to make by opposing a Government initiative.

ContactPoint has been developed following a horrific case where a child was abused and murdered. But here are the Liverpool Lib-Dems OPPOSING a system which is being designed to stop this from happening again.

I accept that the data needs to be secure – and safeguards are being put in place to make sure this happens.

Let the Lib-Dems have their high-minded liberalist arguments. What we're talking about here is the safety of children. Blocking this will just leave many children at risk.

Sarah Jones, L15