On Wednesday 30 October, the Chancellor announced the
government's Budget for 2025-26.
The Budget is the point at which
the amount of money the government spends on public services like
health and education is decided.
We explain what this year's Budget means for early years providers,
schools, colleges and children's social
care.
Was funding for early years included in the
Budget?
The Budget included investment of an extra £1.8billion into the
early years in 2025-26, so the government will be spending over
£8billion in total.
This money will mean the government can continue the expanded
roll out of funded childcare hours for
parents of children from 9-months-old, up to 3- and
4-year-olds.
There is also £15million to begin delivery of 3,000 school-based
nurseries.Schools can bid for up to £150,000 to expand
existing nurseries or open a new one.
The money is expected to mean 300 new or expanded nurseries open
by September 2025.
Is there more money for schools in the Budget?
Funding for schools
will rise by £2.3billion next year.
£1billion of that funding is for high needs, recognising the
immense need in the sector. The government is continuing to
develop plans to transform England's Special Education Needs and
Disabilities (SEND) system and improve outcomes for young
people.
This remaining increase to the schools budget will continue to
fully fund this summer's 5.5% pay award for
teachers, and help cover pay awards in 2025-26.
Despite the investment, there will still be difficult decisions
to take on how money is spent right across the public sector -
including in schools.
We will support schools to use their money more efficiently
wherever possible.
Will there be new investment in fixing school and college
buildings?
For schools, government has committed an additional £1.4billion
to make sure the School Rebuilding
Programme can continue, which means 100 rebuilding projects
starting next year and keeps us on track to rebuild 518 schools
in total.
A further £2.1billion is being allocated to maintain and improve
school buildings, which is an increase of £300million compared to
last year.
Colleges will receive a further £300million to invest in the
further education estate, providing certainty for colleges to
plan improvements to their facilities.
Is there anything else for education in the
Budget?
To support parents, particularly those from disadvantaged
backgrounds, we're significantly increasing investment in
breakfast clubs to over £30million, to help ensure children are
ready to learn at the start of the school day, and helping drive
improvements to behaviour, attendance and attainment.
The investment will both support the existing DfE school
breakfast programme, used by around 2,700 schools, and support
the roll out of our new free breakfast clubs, with
the first 750 schools set to be up and running in the spring.
There is also £44million for children's social care, to support
kinship and foster carers.
The funding will support the trialling a new kinship allowance
in up to 10 local authorities to test whether payment to cover
certain costs – like supporting a child to settle into a new home
with relatives – can help increase the number of children taken
in by family members and friends.
The funding will also be used to help recruit more foster parents
by ensuring that every local authority has access to a regional
recruitment hub.
The government has confirmed its commitment to further reforms to
children's social care in future spending reviews to make sure
every child, irrespective of background, has the best start in
life.
