Editor's View - the Spending Review

The details of the Comprehensive Spending Review will give everybody much to discuss, absorb and act upon in the months ahead. This week, the initial reactions of the early years sector to cuts and funding announcements (mostly cuts!) are pouring forth.

On the day of the CSR, thanks to technological advances, Nursery World's news editor had written a story summarising the main details of interest to our sector and put it on our website almost before George Osborne had finished speaking. We then spread the word through our Twitter and Facebook pages and our e-mail bulletin, with the result that thousands of you clicked on to the site and read the story that very same afternoon.

In this week's magazine, after a little more time for consideration of the CSR, we have news stories about aspects such as the childcare element of Working Tax Credit being reduced and whether Sure Start is really going to maintain current levels of funding (see News, page 4).

We've also talked to children's centre and nursery managers to see how they think the review will affect them and the families they work with (see Analysis, pages 10-11). And Children's Minister Sarah Teather writes the first of a series of monthly columns to start a dialogue with Nursery World readers about the future of the early years (see opposite).

There'll be much more to come. Will the £2bn early intervention grant make a real difference if it is not ring-fenced and also has to incorporate initiatives such as work on teenage pregnancy?

How will the free 15 hours of nursery education for disadvantaged two-year-olds be paid for and how will it work in practice? Keep reading Nursery World!