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Government ministers and children's service providers must all accept leadership responsibility for the direction of children's services or services will "not make any difference" to the lives of vulnerable children, according to Roger Singleton, chief executive of children's charity Barnardo's.

Singleton told delegates at a children's services conference in London last week that the sector was "at a crossroads" in the sense that the end is in sight for current initiatives, such as Quality Protects and visions for the future of children's services were now being shaped.

One such vision was the "over-arching strategy for children and young people" being drawn up by the government's children and young people's unit (CYPU). With public consultation on the strategy ending last week, Singleton said: "The exciting thing about this is it's the first time the government has committed itself to a series of statements about what it wants for all children."

But he cast doubt on the CYPU's vision, pointing out that ministers from only three government departments had so far signed up to the strategy's aims - Home Office minister for young people John Denham, education and skills secretary Estelle Morris and chancellor Gordon Brown - with the Department of Health conspicuous by its absence.

"The real test for this is the extent to which individual government departments are prepared to subjugate their interests to the wider good [of a children's strategy]," he said. "There's a lot to do before these aspirations make sense to the vulnerable children we're dealing with."

Although the CYPU is also working with the Treasury on a cross-cutting review of children at risk, which will feed into the government's 2002-3 to 2005-6 spending review, Singleton said that the children's services sector lacked leadership.

"At the national political level, I'm not sure who's leading that," he said, adding that instead of the sector despairing and opting out of the process, it must accept some leadership responsibility for what happens in children's services over the next two or three years, too. Without competent workers supported and challenged by competent professional managers, simply "shoving around the structure furniture" would not make any difference at all, he said.