Purpose

The Holiday Activities and Food Programme is a
government funded programme to ensure that children and young
people, who are eligible for benefits related free school meals,
receive food and activities during the Easter, Summer and Christmas
school holidays. An open, competitive procedure was carried out
through the Council’s ProContract tendering system as the
current contract comes to an end on 31st May 2026. This report
seeks approval to award the contract for the Holiday Activities and
Food Programme to Mersey Play Action Council as the highest scoring
bidder. This contract is from 1st June 2026 until 31st May 2027 and
has an option to extend for up to a further two years. The total
contract value is £489,763.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the
Corporate Director has decided to:
1)   
Following the confirmed HAF budget allocation, award the contract
for the Holiday Activities and Food Service to Mersey Play Action
Council from 1st June 2026 for a period of 12 months with an option
to extend the contract for a period or periods of up to a further
two years.

Alternative options considered

The Council could opt not to recommission the
service and allow the current contracts to expire without
replacement arrangements in place for 2026. This would mean that
families and young people, who are eligible for benefits related
free school meals, would not have access to free good quality food
and activity provision during the school holidays.
 
A further option would be to not accept the
DfE grant funding, meaning that the costs of service delivery for
the HAF project would have to be met from the Council’s core
budget.