The Officer Key Decision meeting scheduled for Thursday 26 February 2026 was set to discuss the contract awards for the 2026 Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF). This programme aims to provide free places at holiday clubs for eligible children and young people.

Contract Awards for the 2026 Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) Programme

The meeting was scheduled to consider the award of contracts for the 2026 Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF). This programme, funded by the Department for Education (DfE), aims to provide free places at holiday clubs during the Easter, Summer, and Christmas school holidays in 2026. These clubs are intended to offer nutritious meals and a range of physical and enriching activities for primary and secondary school-aged children and young people in Newham who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. The grant can also support children and young people not in receipt of free school meals but who could benefit from the provision.

The DfE has confirmed a maximum grant of £2,176,450 for Newham for the 2026 HAF provision. The funding allocated for external delivery organisations is approximately £385,000 for Easter, £1,012,000 for Summer, and £311,000 for Christmas.

A procurement process was undertaken to select suppliers for the HAF programme. The tender was structured into four lots:

• Lot 1: Primary School Aged Provision
• Lot 2: Secondary School Aged Provision
• Lot 3: Targeted SEND Provision (1-2, 1-3 or 1-4 Support)
• Lot 4: Specialist SEND Provision (1-1 Support)

Providers were required to meet minimum standards, including accommodating children and young people with low-level SEND needs (up to 12% of their total places for Lot 1 and Lot 2 providers) and delivering a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 6 hours of provision funded by the HAF grant, over a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 days. Bidders were evaluated on quality (including social value) (60%) and price (40%).

The report indicated that the Council received applications totalling £3.45 million for the 2026 period. It was recommended that Laura Eden, Corporate Director for Children and Young People, in consultation with the lead member, agree to the award of contracts totalling £1,709,203.39. These contracts would be split between 37 lead delivery organisations across the four lots, aiming to deliver 61,796 places for children and young people.

The HAF programme is intended to support the Council's agenda to build a fairer Newham and forms part of the Council's Young People and Food Security Strategy, addressing the impact of food insecurity and holiday hunger.

The report also noted that Appendix A (HAF 2026 Contract Awards) and Appendix B (HAF Anonymised Tender Report) were exempt from public inspection as they contained information relating to the financial or business affairs of particular persons, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosure.

The decision-making authority for this matter was delegated to the Corporate Director for Children and Young People by Cabinet on 18 November 2025. The decision is classified as a key decision delegated to an officer.