On the 11th of June 2025 The U.K Government published their spending review which sets out the government's spending priorities and capital investments for the next 5 years. In relation to the Early Years sector the key proposals include: ●This SR invests a total of almost £370 million across the next four years to support the government’s commitment to deliver school-based nurseries across England. ●An extra £1.6 bn a year for childcare entitlements by 2028-29 ●The government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life. ●Cost of living: the government is providing direct assistance to families most at risk of poverty through the Healthy Start scheme, and establishing a new Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact) through the SR period to replace the Household Support Fund ●Child poverty has increased, with 4.5 million children living in relative poverty after housing costs in the UK. The government will provide £410 million per year by 2028-29 to expand Free School Meals eligibility to all pupils in England with a parent receiving Universal Credit. The government will provide £80 million per year by 2028-29 for early years and post-16 settings to support this expansion. ●Mental health and family help: the government is expanding mental health support teams to 100% of schools in England by 2029-30. Through the Families First Partnership programme, aiming for better access to local support services to break the cycle of late intervention and to help more children and families to stay safely together. ●Reforms to housing, social care, youth services and SEND provisions (H.M Gov., 2025) ECSDN Response The Early Childhood Studies Degree Network (ECSDN) supports policy attention to the early years sector. Strategic national level attention is greatly needed to ensure the quality and standards of early childhood education and care are functioning to support children. There is also an ethical imperative to better provide financially for young children in this country if we are to avoid further contravention of the UNCRC through rising child poverty levels and the concomitant problems. The investment of £370 million for schools-based nurseries from 2026-2030 is welcomed as an indication of the need for, and importance of, early years provisions. However, the majority of very young children are cared for, and educated in, private day nurseries which currently represent 11,000 of the 14,000 early years settings in the UK (Livesy, 2023). Further, many of these settings have faced increased closures due to increasing financial pressures (National Day Nursery Association, 2023). These pressures were worsened by the underfunding of ‘free childcare places’ (Early Years Alliance, 2023), so the extra £1.6 billion pledged for this may alleviate this situation. However, the chancellor has stated that the funding for schools-based provisions is about ‘school readiness’ (Nursery World, 2025), which, whilst important, neglects the breadth and depth of early years practice across the sector in meeting the needs of children more holistically. Indeed, a drive towards ‘school-readiness’ has been critiqued for negatively narrowing the scope of early years provisions (Moss, 2007; Whitbread & Bingham, 2014). In best utilising this funding, we would urge ministers to review the structure and scope of early years provision so that this money can be used strategically to improve care and education provisions for all children in line with the latest research. For example, The Early Childhood Studies Degrees Network (ECSDN) is committed to a graduate-led workforce for children and families, demonstrated through the introduction of the Early Childhood Graduate Practitioner Competencies (GPC) in 2018. Early Childhood Graduate Practitioner Competencies (ECSDN, 2018, p.6) ‘make a significant contribution to strengthening a graduate-led Early Childhood workforce that is responsive to workforce needs and improves outcomes for children’. It is unclear if the proposed changes continue to recognise the value of GPC. The ECSDN has continually campaigned for greater, not lower qualifications within the sector as a means to ensure quality care and education in the early years of life. With the worsening context for young children in the UK, indicated by the continued rise in child poverty (House of Lords, 2024), it is positive to see the proposed reforms to, and support for mental health provisos, housing and social care. It is also positive to see recognition for the increased costs of raising children in our society, and the support for the Healthy Start Scheme and Family Hubs. As many of us are acutely aware, the decimation of Sure Start over the last decade has been one of the worst political decisions in terms of impact on children, as the recent report on the short and medium-term impacts of Sure Start have evidenced (Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2024). Family Hubs are a similar initiative posed by the Conservative Government to address this deficit, and as such, the continued support is positive, particularly for families with children, and those who work with them. The main difference between Sure start and Family HUbs is that whilst Sure Start specifically targeted support at families with children aged 0-5, Family Hubs have a remit to work with children up to age 19. However, careful attention must be paid to the implementation of Family hubs, as preliminary research on this new initiative has already highlighted the difficulties in resurrecting the same level of support Sure Start provided, due to the damage done to ‘care ecologies’ (Disney et. al., 2023). Overall, the spending review looks positive for early years provisions, as a number of significant pledges have been made which will bring in funding to services which provide for young children, and support families with young children financially. We hope that this funding can be spent effectively by engaging expertise from the sector and research evidence. Dr Juliette Wilson-Thomas and the Early Childhood Studies Degrees Network Policy, Lobbying and Advocacy Strategy Group References Disney, T., Crossley, S., King, H., Phillips, J., Robson, I. and Smith, R., 2023. Family Hubs and the vulnerable care ecologies of child and family welfare in austerity. The Geographical Journal. H.M Gov. (2025). Spending Review 2025. [online] Accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html Early Childhood Studies Degrees Network (ECSDN)(2018). Early Childhood Graduate Practitioner Competencies. ECSDN, UK. https://www.ecsdn.org/competencies/ Accessed 16th March 2023 Early Years Aliance. 2023. Government underfunding drives rising childcare costs as cost-of-living crisis hits the early years sector, new Alliance survey revealshttps://www.eyalliance.org.uk/government-underfunding-drives-rising-childcare-costs-cost-living-crisis-hits-early-years-sector-new Accessed 17 June 2025 House of Lords. 2024. Child poverty: Statistics, causes and the UK’s policy response https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/child-poverty-statistics-causes-and-the-uks-policy-response/ Accessed 17 June, 2025 Institute for Fiscal Studies. 2024. The short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes. https://ifs.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-04/SS_NPD_Report.pdf Livesy, K. 2023. “Early Years: Facts and Stats.” https://www.daynurseries.co.uk/advice/early-years-facts-and-stats. Accessed September 25, 2023. Moss, P. (2007). Bringing politics into the nursery: early childhood education as a democratic practice. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13502930601046620 National Day Nursery Association. 2023. Nursery closure rates up fifty per cent on previous academic year https://ndna.org.uk/news/nursery-closure-rates-up-fifty-per-cent-on-previous-academic-year/ Accessed June 17, 2025 Nursery World. 2025. Spending Review 2025: More money for expansion of funded childcare and school-based nurseries https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/content/news/spending-review-2025-more-money-for-expansion-of-funded-childcare-and-school-based-nurseries/ Accessed June 17, 2025 Whitebread, D., and S. Bingham. 2014. “School Readiness: Starting Age, Cohorts and Transitions in the Early Years.” In Early Years Foundations: Critical Issues, 2nd ed., edited by Janet Moyles, Jan Georgeson, and Jane Payler, 179–191. Berkshire: Open University Press.