Purpose

The Department for Education
(DfE) have provided every local authority in England funding to
coordinate free holiday provision, including healthy food and
enriching activities for children eligible for benefits related
free school meals (FSM).  Referred to as
the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) the funding
provided is to facilitate provision for the Easter, summer and
Christmas Holidays. The County Council has an allocation of
£1,846,750 for the delivery of the 2025-26 HAF
programme.
 
Expressions of Interest (EOI)
have been received from a range of organisations in West Sussex to
provide activities and food during the Easter, summer and Christmas
holiday periods. Following an evaluation of these EOI a range of
organisations were awarded funding for one week of the Easter
holidays; this resulted in the grant expenditure to providers of
£294,000.
 
Provision for the summer
holidays covers a 4-week period and authority is now sought to
distribute the funding to organisations whose offer of a summer
programme has met the required criteria.  Approval is also required for the proposed
arrangements for the remainder of the funding allocation the County
Council has received.

Decision

The Assistant Director (Education and Skills)
has approved:
 

(1)The award of Holiday
Activities and Food (HAF) Programme summer grants to the
organisations identified in Appendix A up to a total value of
£1,063,799.
 

(2)The allocation of
further HAF funds up to a value of £55,000 to assist
providers with delivering the food offer in specific circumstances
and to ensure inclusivity for children with higher needs as
described in paragraph 2.4 of the report.
 

(3)The allocation of
HAF funds to an anticipated value of £234,025 to providers
for a programme for the Winter holiday period including the
opportunity to provide some whole family sessions.