From Coalition to Cabinet: Our 2025 Impact
2025 has been transformational. We arrived at the year with momentum, relationships, and a clear agenda. What we achieved exceeded our boldest ambitions — securing £600 million in funding, influencing major government policy shifts, and building a coalition of over 300 organisations and 75+ parliamentarians united behind children’s wellbeing.
This isn’t just about campaigns won or reports published. It’s about systemic change — the kind that happens when hundreds of voices speak in unison, when evidence meets political will, and when children finally become central to how we shape our nation’s future.
Policy Wins That Changed Lives
£600 Million Secured. Laws Reformed. Lives Changed.
When we walked into 2025, we had a list of policy asks. We ended the year with a list of policy wins — each one representing thousands of children whose lives will be materially different.
£600 million for Holiday Activities & Food Schemes means children won’t go hungry during school holidays. Free School Meals expansion to families on Universal Credit puts nutritious food in reach for more vulnerable children. £18 million for Play ensures playgrounds remain spaces where children’s mental health and physical development thrive.
But beyond the funding are the harder-won victories: we’re seeing a government commitment to explore a Junk Food Tax and Big Tech Tax, both ring-fenced for child health. We’ve advanced the call to abolish physical punishment of children and secured ministerial engagement on the dangers of extreme online pornography. These aren’t incremental tweaks — they’re shifts in how government prioritises children.
Research That Speaks Truth to Power
Evidence-Based Change: Our 2025 Research
Campaigns need science behind them. In 2025, our working groups produced landmark research that didn’t just inform — it influenced.
“Nourishing Britain: The True Cost of School Meals” — co-published with Northumbria and Lincoln Universities — was featured as an EXCLUSIVE in the New Statesman and shaped discussion at the Labour Conference. “Power 2 Play”, complete with a song by Alison Wheeler, made a visceral case for play as public health infrastructure. “Adolescence: How to Help Your Child” gave parents and professionals the tools they need.
Our collaboration with Dr Amrit Purba on social media’s impact on young people didn’t just produce a report — it helped secure a £1.7 million research grant for ongoing study.
The Coalition Effect
300+ Organisations. 75+ Parliamentarians. One Mission.
Nothing in this list happened because of one organisation. The Children’s Alliance succeeded because we built something bigger than ourselves.
Our five working groups — Emotional Health, Early Years, Physical Activity, AI/Social Media, and Food & Nutrition — connected hundreds of organisations. We didn’t just advocate; we convened. We didn’t just campaign; we coalition-built. When you can show MPs, peers, and ministers that 75+ of them share a position, and 300+ organisations back it, policy moves.
From the House of Lords to Downing Street, from media broadcasts to parliamentary committees, we’ve demonstrated that children’s wellbeing isn’t a partisan issue — it’s a universal call.
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.
