Central to government policy in England is the development of a Children’s Services workforce that supports the individual child in all phases and contexts of his/her educational, social and personal development. Current provision is ad hoc, incoherent and lacks progression. It reflects local and regional resource and constraints, values and attitudes, cultures and histories: institutional, social, familial and personal. Workforce reform requires a coherent, progressive and supportive model of Professional Development from the earliest phase of initial teacher training through to senior management to maximise effeciveness. At Plymouth there is an opportunity to pilot such a reforming Professional Development Model, The Plymouth Express partnership to address structurally the issues raised above. The Plymouth Express model of Professional Development is a network of consortia of primary and secondary schools, Local Authorities, Higher Education Institutions and other contributors grounded in a partnership of of professionals. Collectively they will mobilise academic and professional expertise and abstract and applied knowledge to meet the specific professional developmental needs of each member of the work force. The partnership has set up a Research & Development project for the Plymouth Express. This paper reports the early phases of researching into a pilot programme in one consortium.