It's a very muddled announcement, as it clearly won't help in getting parents back to work (though I supposed it might reduce the bill for a few).
It is however squarely targeted at the most disadvantaged families, and has social mobility in mind. study after study finds that (at a population level) children of such households are slipping behind even at that age. Access to good quality preschools can mitigate this. (As well as boosting employment in at sector)
The Sure Start label has been abandoned, but this shows that the concept behind Sure Start continues. It is refocussing on the basics of early interventions to the neediest (something Sure Start had departed from). As the services are much more important to me than the name attached to them, then I welcome this.
But I am not so clear about the detail of how it will be implemented. The current mechanisms for EYFS are unsatisfactory (amount paid to nurseries, especially in London/SE is below actual cost, leading to all sorts of shenanigans around availability and high priced unavoidable additional hours). This may worsen those problems, so nurseries may be unwilling to participate, which would stall the initiative, or would erode quality of care/education which completely defeats the purpose (as it is only high quality care which has been shown to have beneficial effects in this group).