I was a teacher in local Primary Schools for nearly a decade and a voluntary youth worker before that, and my wife is a teaching assistant. I want to raise aspiration and achievement and fight for investment in services for children. As Leader, together we've taken Children's Services from 'inadequate' to 'good', with services for care leavers rated 'outstanding', and while the Tories have let schools crumble, we've rebuilt them. Earlier this year I was delighted to open the brand new Ashurst Primary School and deliver a modern new facility for Penkford at Willow Bank. We're also working to make sure children and young people are at the heart of the borough's regeneration and investment plans, from giving them access to new careers and opportunities to having a say on what we do and how.
We've all experienced huge challenges in recent years. In leading the Council through the pandemic I worked with partners from the public, third and private sector to coordinate support for communities and protect the most vulnerable. We set up #StHelensTogether which is now continuing to offer help for those who need it through the cost of living crisis, including supporting the launch of the mobile food pantry and through the ongoing work of our award-winning Inequalities Commission to begin to tackle the long term health inequalities within the borough. New homes, new jobs and new infrastructure is also vital to this, and that's why I've worked so hard as Leader to attract investment alongside agreeing an Inclusive Growth Strategy to make sure local people and businesses are at the front of the queue for the opportunities we create.
Every year the task of setting a balanced budget for the Council gets harder as government funding goes down and demand for essential services like social care goes up. Last year I led a campaign with the support of councillors and public, private and third sector partners including schools, GPs and more, to call on the government to provide fair funding for services. The campaign received regional TV and press coverage, but sadly - as we expected - it fell on deaf ears with the Tories. We are prioritising services for the most vulnerable, but only with a Labour government can we ever hope to get the funding we need and I will always be a staunch defender of our public services. We're also doing what we can to support workers - as Leader I took the decision earlier this year to give all care workers the Foundation Living Wage, supporting the UNISON campaign.
In the last 4 years we've made huge progress on several major projects. We've delivered plans and funding for once in a lifetime regeneration of Earlestown and St Helens town centres; we've begun bringing Earlestown Town Hall back into full public use, with external repairs now complete; we've secured Freeport status for Parkside and delivered the Link Road, as promised, before work begins on Phase One; Glass Futures is nearing completion, ready to transform the global glass industry and lead work on decarbonisation across the foundation industries; and we've delivered a Local Plan which is ambitious for jobs, homes and infrastructure while protecting the vast majority of our green and open spaces.
I've been an active Labour member and campaigner for over 20 years, supporting candidates in every ward from the print room to the doorstep. I was first elected to represent my own ward of Windle in 2013. In the past it had been a safe Tory seat, but because of the hard work of our Labour team we've been successful in every campaign for a decade. My experience locally and regionally working for the Party as a campaign organiser means I know what it takes to win. I coordinated, wrote and designed our 2022 manifesto which you can still read here on our website, which I also set up and continue to run. I led our local Labour Group into two elections in 2021 and 2022, increasing our vote share each time and winning 29 seats at the all out elections.
I led our negotiations with government during the Covid lockdowns, fighting for local workers and businesses. I've represented our local area at numerous conferences and events and as the City Region lead for Net Zero I represented our region at COP26 in discussions with industry. I work closely with Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram on strategic transport and to make sure the public transport revolution they're delivering benefits residents here in St Helens North. I have also been appointed Deputy Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region and I'm also the Labour Local Government Association national Lead Member for Improvement and Innovation, working with Shadow Cabinet and others to help prepare Labour for government.