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Information for providers about Holiday Activities with Food

Information for providers about Holiday Activities with Food

Do you want to receive a grant to deliver free holiday activities for children and young people? Are you already running an activity that you could offer free places on if you received a grant? Read on to find out more about Holiday Activities with Food (HAF)!

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City of York Council runs a grant programme where providers of all types can apply to receive funding to deliver activities to eligible children and young people during the Easter, summer, and Christmas holidays. We accept applications from voluntary, community, public sector, and private organisations to enable delivery of a rich and diverse offer in locations across the city.

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York HAF is a programme for eligible children from reception to year 11 inclusive.

Any child who receives benefits-related Free School Meals (FSM) in York is eligible for a York HAF place.

Benefits-related FSM are available to pupils if their parents or guardians are in receipt of one of the qualifying benefits and have a claim verified by their school or local authority.

Please note: all children in reception, year 1, and year 2 in England’s state-funded schools receive a free meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) policy. Infant pupils who receive a free meal under UIFSM must also be eligible for benefits-related FSM to be able to access a free place on the York HAF programme.

Schools, at their discretion, are able to make additional children/young people eligible by exception.

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All HAF programmes adhere to the Department for Education’s Framework of Standards, which include specific standards around:

  • food provision
  • enrichment
  • physical activity
  • increasing awareness of healthy eating, healthy lifestyles, and positive behaviours
  • signposting and referrals and supporting families
  • policies and procedures

Full and up-to-date information can be found on the Department for Education website. Our application guidance translates these minimum requirements into a York HAF specific context.

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The maximum bid amount varies by holiday period. You can apply for the maximum amount or less. However, York HAF has a limited amount of funding and we are often unable to offer providers 100% of their request.

This is not necessarily a reflection of the quality of your provision. In assessing applications, we need to balance several factors, including (but not limited to):

  • our available budget
  • the number of eligible children and young people in the area of provision
  • your previous participant numbers (if applicable)
  • the type of activity offered
  • the spread of provision we are offering across the city

To fairly distribute our grant funds, it's very important that you only apply for what you think you can feasibly deliver, bearing in mind the number of eligible children in that area and the take-up of any previous delivery.

We're aware that each opportunity will incur different costs depending on location, target participant group, and type of activity being delivered. However, we provide the following guidelines that relate to the average cost per head that has been achieved by delivery partners in recent years. There are not price guidelines for specialist Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) provision:

  • primary age: £19 per child per session
  • mixed age: £22 per child per session
  • secondary age: £25 per child per session

If you can deliver your programme for less than this amount, you should apply for this.

This programme has limited resources, and we want to enable as many children and young people as possible benefit from access to free holiday activities and food. Applications we deem disproportionately expensive, in relation to similar provision, will be unsuccessful.

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Email: [email protected], the HAF coordinator, for a copy of the latest application.

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We use a booking platform called HolidayActivities. Schools work with HolidayActivities to identify eligible children and young people and to then issue them a voucher, which allows them to book onto available activities. Therefore, if a parent or guardian books via HolidayActivities, their eligibility has already been verified.

If a parent or guardian books their place any other way, you need to secure their 16-digit voucher code and add this to a booking you make manually on HolidayActivities.

If the parent or guardian hasn’t yet received a voucher, ask them to contact their child’s school. If the child does not attend school or if the school is closed, ask them to email: [email protected].

It’s essential that eligibility is checked as the Department for Education stipulates that our programme only has a small amount of funding that can be used toward non-eligible children or young people.

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Anyone struggling to pay for food, energy and other essentials can find information about support available in York.

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Our booking system, HolidayActivities, will collect the data that we need to provide for our report to the Department for Education. If you're booking on a child/young person manually, then you'll need to gather all of the information requested on HolidayActivities, including their voucher code, any additional needs, date of birth, and more.

Following delivery, you'll need to update your attendance register. Additionally, you’ll need to email with an evaluation of how delivery went for the holiday period in question. This includes:

  • participants’ feedback
  • parents’ feedback
  • photos from the sessions (with sufficient permission)
  • any wider impact your sessions have had on those attending
  • impact on your organisation
  • your experience working with York HAF

Lastly, we do reserve the right to request full financial reporting on your grant, which could include breakdown and proof of expenditure.

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