Extended schools offering a wider range of services and facilities will only succeed if local authorities, teachers and school governors collaborate together, new children and families minister Lord Geoffrey Filkin told a conference last week.

Filkin said the central role of schools in the community meant they were an obvious point around which to link up services through improved interagency working.

He added that teachers would benefit by having professionals around to deal with the social problems facing them.

Filkin said: "The experience of many teachers is that they are frequently pushed into the role of a quasi-social worker.

"Having an accessible specialist health and social care workforce there means help is immediately available."

But he made it clear there would be no compulsion about the extension of the school day.

He said: "8am to 6pm is an offer, not an obligation. It is not saying the child [or teacher] has to be thereÉ from 8am to 6pm."

Filkin said a full range of extended services, including health and social services as well as community and other facilities, would probably best be provided by schools linking together, rather than each school being expected to provide them.

He said: "We are looking, as a model, to have a single school or a cluster of schools having those additional facilities."