When residents ask me what their council tax gets spent on, many are surprised to find that we spend more on children’s services than on what we spend collectively on waste collection and recycling, leisure and culture, road repairs and resurfacing, parks and pavements, and public transport.

While these are services most residents don’t access, they are nevertheless vital parts of how we protect and support our most vulnerable children across the borough.

We should be proud of that fact that when we engage on our budget proposals, we consistently get told by residents that this should be our top priority.

In Bury, we really can say that we care about each other.

To give our children the best start in life there are many ways to do so, and it starts before they come into the world.

Providing support to future parents with life skills, decent housing and good jobs are essential to laying the foundations for success within the next generation.

That’s why we continue to push forward with our plans to grow our borough and do so in a way that allows everyone to share in it.

Council leader, Cllr Eamonn O'BrienCouncil leader, Cllr Eamonn O'Brien (Image: Supplied) We, then, need an early years service that meets the needs of families.

The new Labour government has said this will be a top priority for them and I really welcome that commitment.

In Bury, we have already established a “Family Hub” to help bring all of these services together and we are pushing for more of these across other parts of the borough.

This means more than just the council helping out, it includes the way in which the health service and voluntary sector support families too.

It is also essential to have high aspirations for our education system.

One that is inclusive of all our young people, especially those with special educational needs and those who are care experienced.

We are committed to making sure the service the council offers in these two areas rapidly improves and that the extra money put into these services will mean better lives for our borough’s children and their families.

This is not an easy or quick thing to do and will require national change to the way the system currently works – or more accurately, doesn’t work.

But we are determined to deliver this improvement nonetheless.

With the ambition to make Greater Manchester an equally strong place for technical and vocational education, as it is for higher education, we must make sure all young people are empowered to make these choices about their lives.

In this way, Bury will be a place where our children truly do have the best start in life.