Decision details

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 £1,746,440 for the 2022 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 expenditure of £291,172.

As the provision for the summer holidays will be for 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.

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 of the report up to a total value of £970,265.

(2)The allocation of further HAF funds to the anticipated value of £30,000, 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 £200,000 to providers for a programme for the Christmas holiday.

None