Wider recognition of the complexity and difficulty of the task of improving outcomes for children was needed if children’s services were to deal with the problems of recruiting and retaining professional staff, Michael Sieff conference delegates agreed.

And in a variation on old theme one of them commented: “It’s not rocket science – it’s harder".

Three days of cross-disciplinary meetings ended with a trawl of recommendations to government. Allied to the call for acknowledgment of the difficulties facing the professions who were grappling with child development problems was a request to strengthen specialisms and develop expertise.

Health visiting, midwifery, early years care in particular needed support, delegates said. But of most concern was the patchy expertise of day care staff. Compared with continental Europe, the UK workforce was very poorly qualified.

There was strong support for evidence-based interventions from across the range of disciplines, organizations and experience represented at the conference.

It was linked to a call for stronger infrastructure to support robust implementation, incorporating good quality training, regular clinical supervision and mechanisms to oversee fidelity of delivery.

Without that interior strength, the pursuit of evidence-based work was considered doomed to failure.

To the ears of anyone familiar with children’s services argument, none of this will sound new – except for certain aspects of the solution delegates proposed. Concerned about the fragmented and short-term nature of research funding and an absence of any research strategy linked to the Every Child Matters children’s services policy agenda, they suggested government should appoint a “chief scientist for children”. Such a person could marshal existing funds and raise the quality of research, they said.

There was also significant support for a "public health" style approach to parenting which would involve sophisticated liaison with the media and a drive to raise overall public awareness. Linked to that change of emphasis was interest in the potential of the workplace as a location for parenting support.

Delegates approved Iain Duncan Smith and Graham Allen’s effort to take prevention and early intervention out of the political arena, and they echoed it in a call of their own for long-term commitment to prevention activity that did not require renegotiation with each change of administration. [See: Is early intervention printing the dream ticket? [1].]

Building on this year’s theme of early intervention and prevention, next year’s conference will examine a similar range of topics but for children in the primary school years.

Some 80 delegates took part in the closing session. The list of their recommendations to government will shortly be available from The Michael Sieff Foundation [2] website.

The conference was declared a huge success by its founder, Lady Elizabeth Haslam, in her closing address on Wednesday.