Every headteacher I meet wants the very best for the pupils at their school, but they all tell me they can't do it alone. They know parents are the most important influence on their children and, if they want to raise standards for all their pupils, they have to tackle barriers to learning that lie well beyond the school gates. They tell me that if a child arrives at school hungry, or they have speech and language needs that are not being met, or if they don't have a stable home to go back to at the end of the day, then it can have a really damaging impact on their learning.

This has two big implications. The first is that it is a false debate between standards and achievement on the one hand, and the wider wellbeing of children on the other. The truth is that good schools have always supported the development of their pupils 'in the round', and helped them achieve success in their exams and good qualifications as a result. In fact, I have never been to a school that is doing a great job in looking after the wider needs of its pupils without seeing the benefits to their learning.

I think this is increasingly well understood. It is why the vision of a 21st-century school was at the heart of the Children's Plan we published last December: one which embraces its role in the wider development of young people; which is relentless in its core mission of ensuring that through excellent teaching and learning all children achieve their potential; and does so by working in partnership with parents, other schools and other local agencies. Our guidance on promoting wellbeing in schools, across all the five Every Child Matters outcomes, is based on the work that schools are doing up and down the country.

The second implication is that schools need to be able to rely on a strong, supportive network of other services such as housing, health, youth services and the local police if they are to succeed in their core mission. While many schools have strong relationships with their local health services, social services, police, youth centres and sports facilities, many schools still find it more difficult than they should to get support and specialist help when they need it.

To do this, schools must have an effective voice in local decisions about how these services work, and getting timely and high-quality support when they need it. It means schools sitting at the heart of public services for children.

We have taken important steps toward this goal and it is already happening in some places. Local authorities already bring together the police, primary healthcare trusts and the strategic health authority, among others, to make up the Children's Trust and together draw up a plan for the services they will provide for children and young people in their area. But while schools have been involved in many areas, this has not always been the case and sometimes schools have found it difficult to be heard.

I want to change this. For schools to get their voice heard, they need a seat at the table and the right people gathered around it. This is why I am consulting today on changes to strengthen and broaden Children's Trusts. By extending the so-called "duty to cooperate" to all schools, we can ensure headteachers get the package of measures they need to make sure all children fulfil their potential.

We need to make sure Children's Trusts work really well in every area. At the moment, they are not statutory and they vary a lot from place to place. However, leading local areas have moved quickly to make them a powerful body. Where they work best, they operate across the traditional boundaries of individual services such as schools, the health service, youth offending teams and the police, and pull all these services together for the benefit of children and parents. I think now is the time to learn from their success and put Children's Trusts on a statutory basis in every area.

Schools must be central to this. They must be supported effectively by wider children's services, involved in determining the strategic direction and commissioning arrangements at board level, key partners at the local and neighbourhood level, and well placed to give early warning when things are going wrong for young people.

I don't want heads wasting time on bureaucracy any more than I want them becoming part-time police officers or social workers. But I know the vast majority of heads will welcome with open arms the chance to add their insight and experience, draw in the support they need and get the very best for their pupils.

All of this presents an opportunity and a challenge for local government. I can't run every school from Whitehall and I don't want to - that's the job of headteachers and local government. But it is important we ensure standards are high in every school - that is why we have given local government the power to intervene in schools if they think it is necessary when schools are underperforming. It's important these powers are used appropriately, which is why we are going to bring in new legislation to require local authorities to consider formal warning notices when these are clearly justified.

Ensuring really good services for all children and families is not about top-down control. It is about strong local leadership, clear accountabilities that mean services work well together, and a supportive national framework and funding.

The reforms I am announcing today are critical to implementing the Children's Plan and delivering and our vision of 21st-century schools.. They will help us all take forward our ambitions to make this the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up, with excellent standards in all our schools. Because to do that effectively we need to put schools in the driving seat and give them the influence and help they need to get the very best for all their pupils.