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It is an honour and a privilege to make this - my conversation today here with you - my first official engagement as the new Minister for Care Services.

And I say that not simply as the new Minister; but as a husband and a father to three children under five, every one of whom was brought into the world by my wife - supported by professionals like you.

So I want to start our conversation today with two words; thank you.

Thank you for your professionalism

Thank you for your care and dedication and empathy.

Thank you for the long nights you work on wards in hospitals and in the community.

Thank you for persisting with the difficult and frustrating cases

And, yes, thank you for the lives you save

Thank you for the lives you change; mine is one of them

This is day 2 and a half for me so if I may I just want to make some broad remarks about what happened last week on election day - and what that result means for you, for me and for us because what happened is something important; what happened is that together we earned the chance to do something incredibly important.

Our manifesto said straight: 'By 2009 all women will have the choice over where and how they have their baby and what pain relief to use. We want every woman to be supported by the same midwife throughout her pregnancy. Support will be linked closely to other services that will be provided in Children's Centres.'

It's a goal I know we share - and last week the electorate agreed with us.

So this is an important moment, because now we have permission to get down to business.

The maternity care provided for women in this country is something you can justly be proud of. Its amongst the best, if not the best care in the world. Why? Because its a prime example of partnership between those who provide the service; the women and their families who use the service and the voluntary organisations who work tirelessly in the interests of all pregnant women.

Now we both know that services today aren't delivered to the same standards everywhere. This has to change.  Delivery of the maternity standard in the National Service Framework for Children, Young people and Maternity Services presents real challenges for all of us, I think we're going to succeed together. Why? Because, we share a vision. A vision that all women no matter where they live, no matter how big their bank account, no matter their creed, no matter their colour should have easy access to supportive, high-quality maternity services, designed around their individual needs and those of their babies.

I think we've already come a long way. I know many of you will remember Changing Childbirth, which was launched in 1992.  That too set out a vision for women-centred care. That too wanted women involved in planning their birth and labour; of women being involved in decisions about their care; of better information for women and of women having a named midwife. 

Now that didn't happen for all women and this time we have to make sure the vision doesn't stay a vision but becomes a reality. So you're right to ask what's different about this journey that we'll take together?

I think there's three big differences.

Let's start with the partnership. In the next few months the Department of Health will be working with key players to develop the plan of action to work at how we're going to deliver the NSF.

The implementation advisory group will be set up by the Department. And you're already part of the process. An Advisory Group, with representation from the Royal Colleges, and key stakeholders was established in January of this year to advise on the practicalities including crucially, how to provide a supportive and enabling environment within antenatal care for women to disclose domestic violence.

The Maternity Exemplar which outlines the care pathway of a woman accessing maternity services will help. It reflects current and developing policy. (You will be able to collect your copy if you attend the Department of Health fringe meeting this afternoon.)

Second is the unparalleled investment in the health service of tomorrow. Over the next three years to 2007/08 NHS spend will increase on average by 7.1 per cent a year over and above inflation - a total increase over the period of 23 per cent in real terms.  What that means is that over three years this will take the total spent on the NHS in England from £69bn in 2004-05 to £92bn in 2007-08). That is a £23 billion pound increase.

What does that mean in practice?

Other ways you'll see it is the increase in the number of your colleagues in the profession. Women themselves say they want one-to-one care from a midwife.  We have listened to them. That's why in the standard we advocate the offer of support from a named midwife throughout pregnancy.

And that's why we'll increase the number of midwives on the team because the number of midwives available will directly influence our ability to deliver the standard. So we going to implement a range of measures to recruit more midwives and ensure that the midwives we have, want to remain in the NHS, seeking to improve pay and conditions of service, increase training places and attract back returners.  Now you've got views on this and I'm sure you have expressed them during the conference, which I need to understand better over the days to come.

How else will we see this? Well, another way is Children's Centres. We are extending choice by making maternity and other services available through Sure Start Children's Centres.  Health has a very important contribution to make to the success of Sure Start Children's Centres. We have recommended extending accessible midwifery services, possibly by some co-location, in children's centres. If the requirement of the standard is met, the location of midwives in children's centres will make you far more visible and accessible to the community.

We're going to see more of these up and down the country. We'll increase the number of Sure Start Children's Centres to 2,500 by 2008 and 3,500 by 2010.  This represents a real opportunity to provide the best start for children everywhere by providing services that are easy to access,  that are designed around the needs of children and families and that are joined up.  I think midwives, health visitors and health professionals everywhere will share my enthusiasm in making use of the excellent opportunity provided by Children's Centres to reach out to those families that are normally reluctant to access health services.     I've seen them in my constituency of Hodge Hill - and the potential is palpable and they will ensure equity of access to a midwife for vulnerable and disadvantaged people in particular.

The third reason that our journey this time round will be different is empowerment. We want to ensure that women and their partners receive good quality, accurate information about what they can expect from their NHS, including maternity services.  After the success of the first edition of 'You're Pregnant', a joint venture between the Department and the Dr Foster organisation, the second issue is out now. 

In this latest version, we have not forgotten dads.  For the first time, an A5 eight-page dads' insert is included in every magazine and I'm glad to see its got a lot of pictures. It uses real fathers' stories to encourage engagement between partner and baby and also to underline the partner's supportive role during pregnancy and birth - and this is vital.

So big differences ahead are clear: partnership; investment and empowerment

So in conclusion I want to say something very personal to you.

Two of my children were born in theatre. One was born in a refurbished midwife led unit. I don't need to tell you which was the better experience, for my wife, for my child - and yes I suppose for me. I'm very clear about what I learned from that.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. I know this will require a change in the way some of you work but I know too you are ready to rise to the challenge. Sometimes we won't agree on the steps to take. We're intelligent adults - we're going to disagree sometimes. That's what intelligent adults do.

But I think we share a vision, we share a passion and we share an inspiration. I decided to go into public life because of a crucial time in my life, an NHS team that helped my family in a very important way.

That helped me see that we need more people in this world working to help others. Those values are your values. Those are the values we will need if we are together to create from this old service a new service a new cradle for our country of which each and everyone of us is truly proud.

I can't wait to get started.