HAF Summer Activity Offer

On 8 November 2020, the Government announced that the Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018, will be expanded across the whole of England in 2021. The programme will cover the Easter, summer, and Christmas holidays in 2021, and we will make up to £220m available to local authorities for the programme. It will be available to children in every local authority in England and will build on the success of the local holiday programmes that the Government have been funding since 2018. Dudley have been granted £1,200,000

School holidays can be particular pressure points for some families because of increased costs (such as food and childcare) and reduced incomes. For some children that can lead to a holiday experience gap - with children from disadvantaged families less likely to access organised out-of-school activities; more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health and are more likely to experience social isolation.

  The aim of the programme is to make free places available to children eligible for free school meals for the equivalent of at least four hours a day, four days a week and for six weeks a year. This would cover four weeks in the summer and a week’s worth of provision in each of the Easter and Christmas holidays in 2021

Following the recent delivery of Easter activities we would welcome your thoughts and ideas to reflect on what worked well over Easter and what we can improve for the summer offer. We thank you for taking this time to support us.