While the news of wider funding of £500m for children and families had been trailed over the weekend, the £170m in early years funding - to increase the hourly rate for the Government's free entitlements for childcare providers by 2024-25 - was an unexpected announcement.
Nursery World understands that sector organisations have received clarification from ministers that the £170 million early years investment announced by the Chancellor in Parliament today will be allocated to the sector in 2024-25 in addition to annual investments of a similar level in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
It is unclear why the full sector funding allocation was not announced at the Spending Review today, or in any of the subsequent Treasury documents. Nursery World has contacted the Treasury for a response.
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