Holiday Activities and Food Programme

HAF Programme

The Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) is a national programme that supports school age children and young people receiving benefits-related free school meals (FSM). Each local authority receives funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to deliver the HAF programme which provides eligible children with free access to holiday activities and a meal during the Easter, Summer and Winter school holidays.

HAF aims to improve outcomes for these children by offering healthy food and opportunities to participate in a range of activities during the school holidays and the DfE expect all HAF programmes to offer:

• At least one healthy meal on each day of delivery that meets the School Food Standards.
• Fun and enriching activities that help children develop new skills and try new experiences.
• Physical activities that help children to stay active.
• Healthy eating and healthy lifestyle activities that help children to understand more about the benefits of healthy eating and nutrition.
• Information, signposting or referrals to other services that would benefit children and their families

HAF in Lincolnshire

The HAF programme in Lincolnshire has been designed to ensure the programme meets the DfE’s programme requirements; providing Lincolnshire children and young people (CYP) eligible for HAF with access to fun and engaging, high-quality provision and healthy and nutritious meals over the main school holiday periods (Easter, Summer and Winter), as well as supporting them to develop a greater understanding of food, nutrition.

HAF in Lincolnshire is integrated into the Council’s Early Years and Childcare Support Team, overseen by the Sustainability and Development Manager, supported by two HAF Project Officers and the Council’s Children’s Services Strategic Commissioning Team.

HAF is communicated widely to many audiences to ensure that a variety of stakeholders have awareness of the programme. Communication strategies are delivered on for both providers and schools to ensure they have the necessary information to market HAF to eligible parents/carers and to assist with booking onto HAF funded sessions with the view to convert bookings to attendance. Marketing strategies include, utilising internal communication systems, contacting mailing lists, issuing newsletters, sharing HAF flyers and utilising social media to raise awareness of HAF, particularly around key times such as prior to bookings launching and delivery commencing.

Over the HAF 2023-2024 programme, eligible CYP in Lincolnshire have accessed a wide range of different sports and enrichment activities which have included golf, cricket, archery, drama, music, arts and crafts, circus skills, day trips and food and nutrition education activities.

More than 130 approved providers have supported the delivery of HAF across the county over the 2023-2024 delivery period, with more than 69,000 sessions accessed by eligible children and young people across 150 different locations. These included bespoke sessions for asylum seeking CYP and their families, supporting them to develop relationships and integrate into communities. Overall, there were 371 clubs across all three delivery periods (136 Easter 2023, 133 Summer 2023 and 102 Winter 2023).

HAF providers have included schools, early years settings (who provide before and/or after school and/or holiday provision), leisure centres (within the District Councils), voluntary and community sector, sports providers and other third-party providers. A list of the providers who have supported the Council with the delivery of HAF in Lincolnshire can be found at Appendix A.

A number of providers delivering HAF were existing providers who had supported the delivery of HAF in the 2022-2023 delivery period. The Council has a robust process in place for commissioning providers to support the delivery of HAF which includes:

• HAF Open Select List (OSL) process for third party providers (providers who are not schools or Ofsted registered early years providers) whereby providers had to apply to join the OSL and if approved were then invited to submit a mini-competition response which included their proposed HAF offer. Responses were evaluated against a pre-defined selection criteria.
• Schools and early years settings submit an expression of interest to delivery HAF and the HAF Project Officers discussed their offer with the school or early years setting to ensure this was compliant with the aims and objectives for HAF.

HAF Agreements were in place with all providers who were external to the Council, with a pre-determined funding formula of £5 per hour per CYP per day or £10 per hour per CYP per day for CYP with special educational needs/and or disabilities (SEND) or additional needs. In addition, an allocation of £3.50 per CYP per day for a healthy meal and £1 per CYP per day where each day of HAF delivery was more than four hours in duration. HAF providers were also able to apply for additional funding for further enrichment activities, e.g. day trip, visit to a pantomime or they required further additional funding to meet the needs of CYP with SEND and/or additional needs; where the allocated core funding was not sufficient to cover costs.

A robust quality assurance process takes place of HAF provision which includes ensuring all providers are quality assured on an annual basis, including ensuring compliance with their HAF Agreements. As at the end of Winter 2023 all providers were at least Good or better in terms of their performance and quality of their HAF provision and were rated Green in relation to risk.

Support for HAF Providers including HAF Resources:

• A standardised cold and hot menu continues to be provided to HAF providers to support them with their HAF healthy meal delivery.
• The Council’s HAF Project Officers and Food Education Team provide support, guidance and training to HAF providers on meeting the School Food Standards. The Council’s Food Education Team also provide advice/guidance to caterers commissioned by HAF providers to support them in their food delivery.
• Training opportunities are available to HAF Providers to become more knowledgeable and confident in adhering to the School Food Standards, signposting to the Healthy Lifestyles Programme delivered by Gloji (One You Lincolnshire) and promoting Positive Oral Health (delivered by the Community Dental Services). Booking System training is also available to providers who require support in increasing their confidence in utilising the booking system.
• HAF resources are shared with providers to ensure they are kept up to date with key information and activity resources that can be used during delivery via newsletters, a HAF Provider Pack and via email prior to each delivery period.
• Providers are offered opportunities to upskill during HAF Learn and Share events, including attendance to marketplaces, connecting with the voluntary sector and engagement in a workshop centred around managing challenging behaviour delivered by a CAMHS Clinical Psychologist.
• Additional physical resources have continued to be provided to HAF providers to support them with their delivery of the HAF programme.
• Providers are also supported on an individual basis with HAF Project Officers assisting via telephone, email, in person and via MS Teams calls to assist with HAF queries.

HAF Booking System

Since 2022 the Council has commissioned a HAF Booking System to streamline the booking process for HAF and the monitoring and reporting requirements of HAF take up. HAF Evouchers are issued to eligible families by all schools, which is mainly an automatic process as the booking system is linked to schools’ management information systems (unless a school opts out of this process as they wish to issue the vouchers manually). Families are then able to access the HAF Booking System via a link on the voucher and utilise the voucher code to book their child(ren) onto the available HAF provision. Schools are also able to issue vouchers to up to 15% of their school cohort whereby they fall within the pre-determined and transparent vulnerable criteria and schools feel the identified CYP would benefit from HAF.

The HAF Booking System also helps to market HAF in Lincolnshire to eligible families.

HAF Funding

In the 2023/2024 financial year Lincolnshire County Council received £2,696,260 HAF funding.

Funding was spent as follows:

Included within the face to face HAF provision expenditure is the 15% that the Council has the discretion to utilise to fund non-FSM CYP who would benefit from attending HAF. The CYP were identified by either schools or the Council’s Early Help and Social Care teams as vulnerable (based on transparent criteria) and who would benefit from HAF. Overall approximately £344,000 was utilised to fund non-FSM CYP which is below the 15% tolerance.

Key Priorities for Lincolnshire and Key Highlights

Ensuring sufficient levels of HAF provision across Lincolnshire was a key priority for the Council, and extensive mapping was undertaken, based on local intelligence about local supply and demand, to ensure as much provision as possible was made available to eligible children and young people, within the confines of the grant funding available. Other key priorities for the Council during 2023-2024 HAF delivery included increasing the offer available for secondary aged young people and children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities/additional needs.

Over the 2023-24 delivery period:

Winter 2023 delivery did not see an increase in the number of CYP accessing the HAF provision compared to 2022 due to a number of reasons:

• The way the December and January bank holidays fell meant this restricted the number of delivery days on offer to families.
• High levels of illness over the winter meaning booked places were either cancelled or CYP did not turn up on the day.
• Inclement weather conditions also impacted on the number of children actually attended their booked HAF provision.

However, the HAF funding for Winter 2023 was fully maximised as was the funding for the full HAF delivery period. The growth of HAF in Lincolnshire in 2023 was aligned to demand and the maximum grant funding available to the Council.

Healthy Food

For each HAF delivery period a HAF hot menu is developed in partnership with the Council’s Food Education Team which is compliant with the School Food Standards. The agreed menu is then issued to all HAF providers with the expectation that they comply with the menu. However, if a club is unable to comply with the menu, or wishes to utilise their own menu, this was submitted to the Council for agreement and checking for compliance with the School Food Standards. In addition, where a HAF provider was unable to provide a hot meal they were able to access a HAF cold menu or submit a cold menu option to the Council which was also checked for compliance. As part of the quality assurance visits the food offer was also checked to ensure this was compliant with the agreed menu and also compliant with the School Food Standards.

The food available encouraged CYP to try different foods that they hadn’t previously tried, for example one CYP said they didn’t like chicken dinners (and parent nearly didn’t send them because of this), however they tried it whilst at the HAF provision and ate all of it. Another child said they didn’t like lasagne and had brought a packed lunch because of this, however, after being encouraged to try a little bit of it they loved it some much they left their packed lunch and at the lasagne.

Feedback from CYP on the food provision included:

• “The apple crumble is so good”.
• “The pasta tasted yummy”.
• “I haven’t ever tried fresh pineapple before it is sweet”.
• “I didn’t know that lemon tasted like that and it made my eyes go funny”. • “I tried and liked Physalis for the first time and wrote it down so I could tell my Mum”.
•  “I liked the fish, I hadn’t had that before. Grapefruit and mango were new, I really liked it.
• “Loved the roast chicken only ever had KFC chicken or chicken burgers”.
• “Enjoyed trying different foods and were really proud when they had tried something different that they hadn’t tried before”.
• “I’ve changed my mind on blueberries, I like them now”.

Parents had also commented:

• Were amazed on the types of food their children are trying and now “would eat that at home”.
• “My child would never try bananas but now likes them after attending HAF and now has them at home.”
• “When my child first attended HAF they were reluctant to try any of the food offered, how now eats and enjoys everything that is served to them.”
• “My child had asked if we could make lasagne for tea, using the recipe provided from the HAF provision.”  
• “My child would not eat vegetables at home and we had tried everything to encourage them. Since attending HAF, they now love eating vegetables and trying different foods”.

Feedback from CYP on the food available during a particular delivery period was taken into consideration when designing menus for the following delivery period.

Health and Nutrition, Enrichment and Physical Activities

A wide range of fully inclusive different activities were provided to CYP accessing HAF in Lincolnshire. Health and nutrition activities included taste testing, cookery sessions, discussions around healthy eating and healthy lifestyles embedded within HAF delivery and/or during lunchtime and snack times. A wide range of different enrichment and physical activities were delivered through the HAF 2023 delivery period, with providers being provided with support, advice and guidance where required via the Council’s HAF Project Officers. In addition, resources such as water bottles, dental packs, sporting equipment, arts and crafts materials, seed growing packs, food and nutrition education activity booklets, signposting information and leaflets (including recipe cards and oral health leaflets), reading books, personal care items and sanitary products were provided to support providers with the delivery of their activities. Activities included, but not limited to:

• Dance, drama, music, script writing, archery, swimming, arts and crafts, yoga, forest school activities – gave children and young people the opportunity to try different things, some of which they hadn’t tried before, with some young people taking up these activities outside of HAF.
• Visiting zoos going to HAF provision, horse care, working farms or day trips to zoos, animal parks or working farm parks – providing children and young people with the opportunity to see different animals for the first time, learn about them, how to care for them and supporting them to develop positive behaviours.
• Sailing; one young person going on to sail for their local junior sailing club and also volunteer at a HAF sailing club for young people with additional needs.
• Leadership programme; young people felt “very proud and privileged” to be part of the programme and really enjoyed supporting the HAF younger children.
• One provider developed a Level 2 apprenticeship programme which led to a young person working for the provider when they left education: the young person fed back that if wasn’t for this opportunity “wouldn’t be where they are today.”
• Golf, cricket, football, basketball, dodgeball, tennis, which all encouraged CYP to try activities that were of varying intensities; keeping them active and limiting the time they remained sedentary.

Other feedback from the CYP on the activities available included:

• “Liked the fruit salad game”.
• “I liked baking the cakes and making the mixture”.
• “Wished the club could continue for the rest of the summer holidays”.
• “Will miss coming here as don’t really do a lot at home”.
• Secondary aged: lived in an isolated area - enjoyed HAF as wouldn’t see friends during summer holidays.
• “Enjoyed script writing”.
• “Baby lambs were so cute, I loved being able to hold them”.
• “The drum set is ace and want to learn drums now”.
•  “I learnt what an invertebrate was, it has no bones”.
• “Loved trying new activities - I have tried dance, drums, Glockenspiel, table tennis”.
• “Learnt that your body is made of 70% water, it is important to drink lots of water”.
• “It doesn’t feel like school and I really enjoy being with my friends”.
• “If I wasn’t here I would be at home bored and watching TV”.
• “The week at HAF was the best week of my life ever”.

Feedback from parents/carers included:

• "the food bags … are greatly appreciated. Extra good ideas for things to do at home are both brilliant for us. I'm on benefits …… so any extra help is appreciated."
• “Thank you so much for giving my 2, a fun filled week, they have enjoyed that the most out of everything over the Easter holidays apparently”.
• “How you do what you do with so many children, lots of which have their own needs is mind blowing!!”
• “It’s so nice that children who do struggle can do clubs too, often they don’t fit in or fit the ideal that the club wants!”. • “Yours is all inclusive and has given my 2 confidence”. • “My child has really enjoyed the HAF sessions and it’s so lovely to see him settling into a different environment and getting to know other trusted adults”. • “I would rather him get a little upset than mask completely all day. Honestly the last three days I’ve been so proud of him turning up and then coming out smiling!”. • “My child feels happy and safe. They struggle to make positive relationships with peers and especially adults. Rarely makes eye contact with anyone but has been attending all the sessions from the beginning. It is the only setting they have continually accessed and wants to go back to”

Partnerships

Lincolnshire has been, and continues to be, heavily invested in partnership working with both other colleagues within the Council and external partners to provide as an exciting and enrichment experience as possible for CYP accessing HAF. The Council’s Lincolnshire Music Service has supported the delivery of HAF through the provision of specific music workshops or through supporting other HAF providers with their delivery by offering music workshops which in included but not limited to world drumming, beat boxing, DJing and Street Dance. In addition the Council’s Public Health Service provided funding for dental packs which were supplied to HAF providers to distribute to their HAF CYP in order to promote positive oral heath.

Other partnership included, but not limited to:

• Active Lincolnshire’s Together Fund supported HAF providers who were also early years providers to access training to deliver inclusive physical activities and sports equipment. Active Lincolnshire also match funded two HAF provider events in order to upskill providers and provide the opportunity for networking and sharing best practice.
• Asda Foundation Lincolnshire Community Champions provided activities in some of the HAF clubs on food waste and the impact this can have on the environment, as well as the importance of healthy eating and positive mental health and wellbeing. Asda also provided funding to purchase self care items to support CYP.
• Bikeability provided 78 CYP with the opportunity to improve their skills and confidence with safely riding bikes during the Easter 2023 HAF delivery.
• Branston Ltd funded GoGro to deliver interactive cooking sessions with CYP in a number of different HAF clubs across the county and also supplied recipe cards and 5000 water bottles. Sessions included educating CYP on how to cook healthy potato dishes whilst also teaching basic cookery skills.
• Community Dental Services provided oral health resources to support good oral health which were distributed to families via HAF providers. Training was also provided to HAF providers on promoting good oral health during their HAF delivery.
• Dyson Farms funded a HAF trip for up to 40 CYP to visit their farm at Nocton in Lincolnshire. This provided the CYP with the opportunity to experience a short tractor tour of the farm, visit the wood, participate in pebble kicking for insect life in the shallow stream, visit the grain store and potato shed.
• Golfway provided a HAF Winter Golf Day for 42 primary and secondary aged CYP. This included donating golf gloves, golf caps, Golfway base packs and four Golfway dual packs. They also funded professional filming and editing of the golf event.
• Lincolnshire Co-op provided vouchers to the value of £13,500 in order for HAF providers to purchase additional fruit and vegetables to support their healthy eating and healthy lifestyle activities.
• Lincolnshire FA provided the opportunity for Lincolnshire YP to enrol on the Lincolnshire Lioness Leadership programme through attending HAF clubs and coaching CYP in order to improve their skills, knowledge and understanding of female sports development.
• Morrisons in Louth, Lincoln and Grantham donated £800 during Summer 2023 in order to support providers to purchase breakfast items for their clubs and provide breakfast in addition to the healthy lunch.
• PING Ltd in Gainsborough supplied golf equipment and bags for the 2024 HAF golf scholarship and for 2023 provided branded stress balls and funded driving range activities during the December 2023 golf event.
• Riseholme College provided Education Officers, their 3G pitch, teaching kitchen and animal unit as part of a trip for CYP accessing a HAF club in Lincoln during Summer 2023. GoGro also delivered their interactive cooking masterclass as part of the trip.
• The Golf Foundation provided the opportunity for 72 CYP to be introduced to golf during Easter 2023 at 3 different venues in Gainsborough. In Summer 2023 the Foundation provided training to 11 different HAF providers in order that the more CYP could experience golf activities. These activities were supported by the equipment provided by Golfway, which was match funded through the Council, The Golf Foundation and PING. During Winter 2023 the Foundation also provided a wide range of resources and provided an instruction to deliver Get Glowing Golf workshops.
• The National Literacy Trust donated primary and secondary fiction/non-fiction books to the value of £9,205 and a Doncaster author and illustrator (Phil Sheppard) delivered two 60 to 90 minute workshops involving storytelling and illustration.
• University of Lincoln sport undergraduate students volunteered at Lincoln City Foundation HAF delivery to provide work experience opportunities.

Overall over £70,000 of added value was brought to HAF in Lincolnshire through our partnerships. The majority of this was not quantifiable funding but the value of the support provided by our partners in order to ensure CYP in Lincolnshire were able to access additional fun and enriching activities during HAF 2023 delivery.

Key Learning and Next Steps

The delivery of HAF in Lincolnshire is already well established and embedded with a high number of providers continues to support HAF in 2024. HAF has now grown as much as it can do within the funding available. The cost of delivering HAF has increased, however, the DfE funding remains similar (aligned to the number of FSM eligible CYP on roll in Lincolnshire schools). The cost of delivering HAF has increased, limiting Lincolnshire’s ability to further increase the HAF offer for 2024. In order to ensure HAF providers are appropriately funded to deliver HAF, Lincolnshire County Council has increased its funding allowance for food to £5 per CYP per day, whilst still retaining the £1 per CYP per day allowance for healthy snacks where sessions are more than four hours in length.

We will continue to be creative with our existing partnerships and further developing partnership to endeavour to grow provision in as far as possible for 2024 within the funding envelope available.

Delivery over Winter 2024 will be restricted again due to the way bank holidays fall and therefore providers will be provided with the opportunity to offer a mixed model of face to face delivery and food packages for families to either take home or collect on the days providers are unable to deliver. In addition, learning from Winter 2023 has shown us that there is more likely to be higher cancellations or no shows and therefore taking this approach will ensure that CYP continue to have access to healthy food over the Winter 2023 holiday.

In addition, the Council is exploring partnerships with other initiatives in Lincolnshire, such as Children Eat Free (ChEF) in order to ensure that more CYP in the East Lindsey area (which is one of Lincolnshire’s most deprived areas) have access to healthy food over the school holidays. Match funding is being explored with District Councils by the ChEF provider in order to ensure as wide a spread coverage as possible.

The continuation of HAF beyond 2024 will be dependent on any future funding available nationally. Should further funding not become available, Lincolnshire will evaluate the elements of HAF that has had the most impact for Lincolnshire CYP in order to determine how we might be able to build on our partnerships in the future in order to support CYP to continue to access activities and healthy food during the school holidays. We will also consider the impact HAF has had on supporting Lincolnshire County Council with its sufficiency strategy in relation to childcare.

Appendix A – HAF Providers 2023

The providers who have been commissioned to deliver HAF during 2023 are as follows:

• Acorn Childcare Centre - Early Years
• Active Arena - Third Party
• Acts Trust - Third Party
• APS Equine - Third Party
• Aspire Childcare - Early Years
• Bardney Primary - School
• Boston Grammar School - School
• Boston United Community Foundation - Third Party
• Bright Sparks Potterhanworth - Early Years
• Brightstars Little Gonerby - Early Years
• Cedar House Childcare - Early Years
• Children’s Links - Third Party
• Daisy Chain Nursery - Early Years
• Discovery Sports Coaching - Third Party
• Emma Clayton Childminder - Early Years
• Elite Sports Academy - Third Party
• Endeavour Training - Third Party
• Eslaforde Nursery - Early Years
• First Timers Pre School Nursery - Early Years
• Gainsborough Adventure Playground - Early Years
• Gainsborough Parish Church Primary - School
• Gainsborough Trinity Foundation - Third Party
• Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre (Boston Borough Council) - Third Party
• Green Synergy - Third Party
• Halton Holegate CoE Primary School - School
• Hartsholme Preschool & Kids Club - Early Years
• Heckington St Andrews Primary School - School
• Holy Trinity Preschool - Early Years
• I Learn Education (Caistor) - Early Years
• Imagination Gaming - Third Party
• Inspire+ - Third Party
• JB Sports Coaching - Third Party
• Junior Adventures Group - Third Party
• KIDS Third Party Koala Klubs1 Ltd - Third Party
• Lambs Afterschool and Holiday Club - Early Years
• Land and Leaf Collective - Third Party
• Leadenham CoE School - School
• Limes Play and Learn - Early Years
• Lincoln City Foundation - Third Party
• Lincolnshire Educational Support - Third Party
• Lincolnshire Farm Schools - Third Party
• Lincolnshire Music Service - Third Party
• Lincolnshire YMCA - Third Party
• MACCA Sports Academies - Third Party
• Madcaps Early Years Magna Vitae Trust for Leisure & Culture - Third Party
• Manor Leas Junior Academy - School
• Market Rasen CoE Primary - School
• Monks Abbey Primary - School
• Moulton Chapel Primary - School
• Naomi’s Garden (The King’s Outreach) - Third Party
• Newton on Trent Primary - School
• Nini Childcare - Early Years
• North Somercotes Primary - School
• One Touch Football - Third Party
• Osgodby Primary School PAB Languages Ltd - Third Party
• Premier Education (Multi Sports Pro) - Third Party
• Priory Lincoln Academy - School
• Priory Witham Academy - School
• RAFA KIDZ Cranwell - Early Years
• Riverside - Early Years Playgroup
• Early Years Sam’s Seedlings - Early Years
• Smartie Pants - Early Years
• Special Olympics Lincolnshire - Third Party
• Spirit & Soul Wellbeing - Third Party
• Sport2day - Third Party
• St Faith & St Martin CoE Junior - School
• St Giles Academy - School
• Step Out Stay Out - Third Party
• Stickney CoE Primary - School
• Strong Girl Squad - Third Party
• Synergy Sports Coaching - Third Party
• The Bytham’s Afterschool Club - Early Years
• The Home Nursery - Early Years
• Tonic Health - Third Party
• Town & Country Nursery - Early Years
• Wildcats Group Ltd - Third Party
• Yellow Brick Road Bracebridge Heath - Early years
• Yellow Brick Road Metheringham - Early Years
• Youth Dreams Project - Third Party