You’d be forgiven for thinking spending reviews are all about numbers on spreadsheets and, in many ways, that’s true enough. But the soul of this week’s iteration is a chance to deliver on the change people voted for.
I’m deeply proud that the 2025 spending review confirms that this Labour government will spend more per pupil on schools than at any other time in this country’s history. At a time of tough choices and competing demands, it speaks volumes that the chancellor has chosen to prioritise education. The message is clear: we’re investing in Britain’s renewal and that means investing in Britain’s children.
We’re starting early, making sure every child gets the best start in life. Labour will invest in school-based nurseries, powering the rollout of our childcare entitlement and saving working parents up to £7,500 per year.
Paired with the biggest ever uplift in funding for our disadvantaged children at nursery, we’re ensuring every child arrives for their first day of school ready to learn. That’s what our Plan for Change promises and what this spending review will help us deliver.
We’re supporting children when they reach school, too. Free breakfast clubs in 750 early adopter schools are rolling out as I write this. We’re continuing to recruit and retain expert teachers. Our spending review means we can ensure that half a million more children will be eligible for free school meals so that they are well-fed and able to concentrate on their lessons.
We’re making difficult decisions to reform and strengthen our education system. Those choices and trade-offs are necessary if we want to invest in better life chances for our youngest children, in free school meals and in putting more brilliant teachers at the front of every classroom.
And we’re going to be asking more from schools, leaders, and ourselves as government. At times like these, we owe it to the British public to squeeze every last drop of value out of every pound spent.
Politics is about priorities and this spending review sets out ours clearly. Labour has made our choices: to deliver better life chances and to invest in state schools by ending private schools’ tax breaks. The Conservatives and Reform have made theirs: to oppose that investment, to block free breakfast clubs, to contest the most far-reaching child protection measures in a generation – so they can hand those tax breaks straight back to private schools.
Neither the Tories nor Reform have a plan for driving up standards in our schools. They simply can’t see the problems that run deep into our classrooms. While the system works well for some children, far too many are left out in the cold – let down by schools that just aren’t set up to meet their needs.
The data tells us that these stories of soaring and sinking don't appear at random, they’re systemic. From white working-class children to those with SEND, there are whole swathes of young people who the system has failed time and again and whose outcomes are nothing short of a scandal.
If that’s where our past has left these children, then I’m determined that their futures will be different. We’ve fixed the foundations, and now this spending review allows us to deliver the national renewal of education our children need. In the autumn, we will publish a schools white paper that maps out the future of our school system in detail. We’ll build a system that delivers excellence everywhere, for every child. A system where every school works for every child, where every teacher can better teach every child. And I mean every child – no matter their background or educational needs – because their background shouldn’t determine what they go on to achieve.
I will always be ambitious for the children of this country and this spending review shows that the chancellor is too. With our Plan for Change, Labour is building a fairer future, one where a child’s background no longer dictates their destiny.
As we enter an era of national renewal, it’ll be our children leading the way.
Bridget Phillipson is Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities
