Proposed cuts to a number of youth services and early years programmes will now not go ahead, the Department of Education has said.
The programmes include the Pathway Fund, Sure Start, Bright Start and Toybox.
The department also said it would not proceed with all the cuts proposed for the Extended School programme.
Parents had expressed concerns over how reductions to these schemes could affect vulnerable children.
Dr Mark Browne, the Department of Education's permanent secretary, said that given the scale and impact of the cuts he believed they were "a decision that should be taken by a minister, not a permanent secretary".
