In a delegated Officer Key Decision, Laura Eden, Corporate Director for Children and Young People, approved the award of contracts for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) Summer 2025. The decision, made on 24 June 2025, allocates £956,951.20 to 20 lead delivery organisations, aiming to provide 38,415 places for children and young people during the summer holidays. This decision was made in consultation with the portfolio lead, as delegated by the Cabinet on 4 February 2025.

Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) Summer 2025

Laura Eden, Corporate Director for Children and Young People, approved the award of contracts to 20 lead delivery organisations for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) Summer 2025, totalling £956,951.20. This will provide 38,415 places for children and young people in Newham.

The HAF programme is funded by a grant from the Department for Education (DfE), with a maximum of £2,049,110 available to Newham for the delivery of Easter, Summer, and Christmas HAF 2025 provision. The grant is provisionally split as follows:

• Easter: £350,000
• Summer: £950,000
• Christmas: £250,000

The purpose of the grant is to provide free places at holiday clubs during school holidays, including at least one daily nutritious meal, as well as physical and enriching activities. These places are intended for primary and secondary aged children and young people in Newham who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. The grant can also be used to provide free or subsidised places for children and young people who are not in receipt of benefits-related free school meals, but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision.

A mini competition was held under the framework for the delivery of the HAF programme to provide activities for the Summer holidays. The competition was divided into three lots:

• Lot 1: Universal provision for primary school aged children
• Lot 2: Universal provision for secondary school aged children
• Lot 3: Specialist provision for children with significant or complex special educational needs and / or disabilities (SEND).

Providers were invited to apply to a single lot, or to multiple lots, but only lots which they were appointed to on the framework.

The tender included the following minimum requirements:

• All Lot 1 and Lot 2 providers were asked to put arrangements in place to accommodate children and young people with low-level SEND needs – up to 12% of their total places.
• Providers were asked to bid for a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 20 days of HAF provision.
• The panel evaluated bidders' responses for quality (50 %), price (40%) and social value (5%) and sustainability (5%). Quality questions were assessed against the HAF service specification.

The council received applications totalling £1,521,775, and 32 of the 40 applications met the minimum criteria. The 32 programmes listed in Appendix 1 HAF Summer 2025 Successful Providers 11-06 met or exceeded the minimum requirements, and the total value to be awarded is £956,951.20. This is £6,951.20 more than the Council anticipated, but was covered by an underspend in the Easter programme due to lower attendances.

The HAF programme is aligned with the council's priorities to build a fairer Newham and give children and young people the best start in life. It also forms part of the Council's Young People and Food Security Strategy, which is tackling the impact of food insecurity and holiday hunger faced by children and young people in the borough.

Two alternative options were considered and rejected:

• Option 1: Do nothing - This would limit the delivery of HAF provision to just the Council's internal team, which would not meet the requirements of the DfE grant.
• Option 2: Agree funding for local authority-maintained schools only - There has been no interest from local authority-maintained schools in respect of HAF 2025.

The decision record notes the legal implications of the decision, stating that it is compliant with Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, which places a duty on the council to secure sufficient childcare for parents in their area who require it to enable them to work or undertake education or training. The decision is also compliant with the Council's Contract Standing Orders and the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The decision record also notes the equalities implications of the decision, stating that the council has a duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a protected characteristic and persons who do not. The service has undertaken an Equalities Impact Assessment and keeps this under review.