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 for the
Easter, summer and Christmas Holidays;
the County Council has an allocation of up to £1,794,400 for
the 2023/24 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 holidays. 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 £289,847.96.
 
As the provision for the summer holidays
covers a 4-week period this will result in expenditure of over
£500k, requiring an officer key decision. This report seeks
approval to distribute the funding to organisations whose offer has
met the required criteria and outlines the proposed arrangements
for the remainder of the funding allocation the County Council will
receive for the 2023/24 programme.

Decision

The Interim Assistant Director (Education and
Skills) has approved:-
 
(1) The award of Holiday
Activities and Food (HAF) 2023/24 programme summer grants to the
organisations identified in Appendix A of the report up to a total
value of £1,050,107.

 

(2)The allocation of
further HAF 2023/24 programme funds up to a value of £25,000
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 2023/24 programme funds to an anticipated value of
£270,000 to providers for a programme for the Christmas
holiday period.
 

(4)The allocation of
further HAF 2023/24 programme funds to the anticipated value of
£25,000 for the provision of a number of one-day, mass
participation family events to increase engagement opportunities
for families eligible for free school meals.