Iain Duncan Smith explains how the Conservative Party is looking to the future, in an article for The House Magazine.

Last year was a party conference unlike any other. We gathered in Blackpool a month after the attacks of September 11. No matter what the subject of discussion our thoughts were never far from those harrowing images of the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

We will never forget the thousands who lost their lives and the families they left behind. We continue to offer the government our staunch support in pursuing the War on Terrorism.

This year's conference will also be different, but for more positive reasons.

It will show that the Conservatives are at the heart of the argument on how we reform public services. Long waits for hospital treatment, indiscipline in classrooms and rising violent crime - these are the issues that matter to people and our party is committed to making life in Britain better by tackling these problems.

As I said in Harrogate at our Spring Forum, it is the elderly and frail and those families trapped in sink estates, who suffer the most from failing public services. We want to transform the quality of public services so that we can improve the quality of life for those who depend upon them the most.

Of course the need for better public services is accepted by all, but the devil lies in the detail.

That is why I have initiated the most wide-ranging policy review in the Conservative Party since the 1970s. Back then the people of Britain sought answers to seemingly intractable economic problems and we responded with measures that transformed the "sick man of Europe" into the fourth largest economy in the world.

Today our country faces a different set of challenges. For all of our economic success over the past 20 years, our quality of life has failed to keep pace with rising living standards. Our society should no longer put up with the shameful divide between private prosperity and failing public services.

We need to open our minds to new ideas from abroad. That is why I and my party have been looking at the way Sweden deals with its drug problem, how Germany, Denmark and Holland are raising school standards, how the French, the Swiss and the Spanish are delivering better healthcare.

The idea here is not to produce policies as fast as possible to score political points, it is to come up with a serious programme of reform that will secure lasting improvements.

Anyone who believes in easy answers should visit the Easterhouse estate in Glasgow. Despite the herculean efforts of dedicated community staff, the estate continues to suffer from deep-seated social problems that are all to familiar to residents of similar estates across the country. I have witnessed these problems at first hand: debilitating drug abuse, vandalism and graffiti.

These problems have emerged over many years and are the result of hugely complex social and economic factors that have developed under governments of both parties.

They did not appear overnight; they will not disappear overnight. But there is an opportunity to change things if we take the time to listen, to learn and to think outside the usual tramlines.

Our conference this year reflects that approach.

Representatives will hear not just from other Conservatives. They will have the opportunity to listen to people from outside the party who know what it is like to suffer from failing public services.

We are also making our proceedings more accessible to parents and working people by holding many of our key debates in the evening when more of our members are able to participate.

These are exciting times for our party.

When Labour appears to offer nothing more than tax and spend without any commitment to genuine reform, we have to show that there is a better way for Britain: a way that trusts people and supports them instead of second-guessing them and telling them what to do.

Our world is changing and if we want to make our country a better place to live in, we must use timeless Conservative values to meet the challenges of our time.

Visit Bournemouth and you will see that we are on course to do exactly that.