The June 2025 Spending Review landscape for children and young people

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, set out the Government’s spending plans for the next three years in the 11^th June Spending Review.  

The Chancellor reconfirmed the £132.5 million of Dormant Assets Funding reserved for young people and youth sector infrastructure. London Youth welcomed the importances of this investment here, whilst pressing the urgent case longer term sustainable funding for the youth sector.

One of the cornerstone commitments in the Spending Review is to take forward the forthcoming National Youth strategy. We look forward to seeking detailed Government plans in the second half of 2025 which reflect the priorities of young people across the UK and the investment in the youth facilities which support them.

London Youth also welcomed the £1.2 billion announced for skills and training. This is a welcome boost for 16–19-year-olds seeking access to high quality training and apprenticeships.

Other key investments impacting children and young people are set out below.

Child Poverty

• £410 million will expand Free School Meals eligibility to all pupils in England with a parent receiving Universal Credit and a further £80 million for early years and post-16 settings.
• Breakfast clubs for every primary-aged child in England. As of this summer term 750 schools are receiving funding to deliver a free breakfast club. These early adopters will inform wider deployment.

A forthcoming Child Poverty strategy will set out further measures. London has the joint second highest regional child poverty rate at 35% and three out of the five local authorities with the highest rates of child poverty in the country are in London; Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham.

Education, Skills and Employability

Alongside the £1.3 billion investment in skills for young people referred to earlier, the Chancellor also announced:

• An extension of the DWP trailblazers programme, to include a further eight Youth Guarantee trailblazers. Further detail on the Youth Guarantee policy can be found here.
• An expansion of the schools budget by £4.5 billion a year
• The implementation of a Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy and the reform of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system will be set out later this year.

Health

• Increased investment in the NHS of £29bn per year sits alongside a commitment to reduce GP appointment waiting times. This will also benefit young people who often have equal or longer waiting times than adults.
• Funding will be committed to rolling out Mental Health Support Teams to every school by 2029, as previously announced.

Other policy and funding initiatives that are of relevance

With temporary accommodation and acute shortages of affordable housing affecting so many young people, we were pleased to see £39 billion investment in a new 10-year affordable housing strategy. We look forward to seeing new funding initiatives to prevent growing homelessness.

Young people will be the engine of growth for the UK economy, beyond the term of this and future Spending Reviews. They need to be empowered to have their voices heard across all policy areas which will shape their future wellbeing and success. We look forward to seeing how the 10-year National Youth Strategy will set the foundations to realise these goals.

For more policy and public affairs support and engagement, you can contact Clare MacNamara at [email protected]