Holiday Activities and Food Programme

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Holiday Activities and Food Programme

About HAF

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme provides free access to activities and healthy meals to eligible children and young people in Brent during the school holidays.

Children and young people can access a minimum of 4 days of HAF programme activities over the Easter and Christmas holidays, and 16 days over the summer holidays.

The programme includes:

a wide range of fun, physical and enriching activities
education around healthy eating, healthy lifestyles, and preparing food
a nutritious meal each day
signposting, referrals and support for parents, carers and families
a safe space for children to interact with others.

Visit GOV.UK for more information about the Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

Who can attend

To be eligible for a free place, children and young people must currently be:

in Reception to Year 11 (inclusive); and
a resident in Brent and/or attending a Brent school; and
receiving benefits-related free school meals (FSM) or have had their eligibility confirmed by a professional.

Please note that benefits-related free school meals are separate to the universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) scheme, which provides children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 with free school meals. Pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 who receive free school meals must also be eligible for benefits-related free school meals in order to access a free place on the HAF programme.

If you think you might be eligible for free school meals and are not yet registered, please visit our free school meals page. Alternatively, speak to your school.

Proof of eligibility

When booking a place, you will be asked to confirm your eligibility by:

showing a copy of your school holiday supermarket voucher email
quoting your supermarket voucher eCode; or
providing a confirmation of eligibility (such as an email, letter, or code) from your school, social worker, youth worker or other professional.

If you believe your child/ren are eligible for the HAF programme but do not have proof of eligibility, please speak to the relevant holiday club provider when booking a place, and they will be able to assist you.

Siblings

Siblings of children who meet the above criteria may also be able to access Brent HAF programme places, please speak to the relevant holiday club provider and they will be able to assist you.

Information for providers

Application are now open. Submit an expression of interest form before 1 February 2023.

About HAF

The HAF programme is funded by the Department for Education. The programme provides free holiday provision, including healthy food and enriching activities, to eligible children and young people during the school holidays.

Children and young people are able to access a minimum of 4 days of HAF programme activities over the Easter and Christmas holidays, and 16 days over the summer holidays. The duration of individual provision can be flexible, and it is not a requirement for individual providers to cover all weeks that the programme runs. View information on community school holiday dates.

Who can attend

The HAF Programme is available to school-aged children in Brent, who are currently in in Reception to Year 11 (inclusive), and who are in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. There is also some flexibility to provide a small number of free or subsidised places for children and young people who do not receive benefits-related free school meals but who could benefit from the HAF programme, and further information on this will be sent to successful Brent HAF programme providers.

Holiday provision can also be open to non-eligible children, but their participation will not be funded through the government grant. View full information on who can attend.

Interested in working with us?

Brent is keen to work in partnership with local organisations, schools and the community and voluntary sector to offer a varied and wide range of activities as part of the HAF programme during the specified school holidays, and grant funding is available to support the delivery of these activities. If you are an organisation or provider who is interested in being part of the Brent Holiday Activities and Food Programme, please email: haf@brent.gov.uk for further information and to request an expression of interest form before the closing date of 1 February 2023.

See below for further information on how to apply.

HAF Programme standards and requirements for providers

We welcome expressions of interest from organisations that can help deliver the Brent HAF programme, ensuring that the below DfE standards and requirements are met:

healthy meals: provide at least one healthy meal a day (breakfast, lunch or an evening meal) and must meet the School Food Standards throughout the day. The expectation is that the food served by providers should be hot, although we acknowledge that there may be times (e.g. trips), where cold food is most appropriate.
All food provided must comply with regulations on food preparation, take into account allergies and dietary requirements, and take into account any religious or cultural requirements for food. To ensure that there is no stigma associated with HAF funded places, if a provider is open to both HAF-funded and non-HAF funded places, it is vital that all attendees are provided with an identical food offer and that HAF funded children are treated equally.
enriching activities: provide fun and enriching activities that give children opportunities to develop or consolidate skills or knowledge, try out new experiences, and have fun and socialise.
physical activities: offer activities that meet Physical Activity Guidelines on a daily basis. Meeting the physical activity requirement does not have to be in the form of a structured activity session, but might include active travel, free play and sports.
increasing awareness of healthy eating, healthy lifestyles, and positive behaviours: HAF providers should incorporate helping children to understand more about the benefits of healthy eating and nutrition into their programme. These do not need to be formal learning activities and could include activities like getting children involved in food preparation and cooking, growing fruit and vegetables, taste tests, discussing food and healthy eating during mealtimes, and including food and nutrition in other activities. Activities can also support children and young people in wider learning about healthy lifestyles and exercise.
Signposting, referrals and supporting families: HAF providers should be able to offer information, signposting or referrals to other services and support that would benefit the children who attend their provision and their families. HAF providers can also offer training, advice and healthy eating sessions and activities for parents, carers or other family members.
Policies and procedures: providers must be able to demonstrate and explain their safeguarding arrangements and have relevant and appropriate policies and procedures in place in relation to: safeguarding, health and safety, insurance, accessibility and inclusiveness. Where appropriate, clubs must also be compliant with the Ofsted requirements for working with children.

How and when to apply for HAF Programme grant funding

If you are interested in being part of the Brent HAF Programme, you will need to outline your proposal by completing an expression of interest form. We are interested in expressions of interest from consortia, but please indicate if you would like help to identify a partner to work with.

You can request a copy of the expression of interest form, and additional application information, by emailing haf@brent.gov.uk.

The indicative timeline for expression of interest review and decisions is outlined below. The timetable below is indicative only and the Council reserves the right in its absolute discretion to amend any of the dates set out in the indicative timetable or elsewhere.

HAF Programme 2023 Expression of Interest opens: Wednesday 4 January 2023
Deadline to submit HAF Programme 2023 Expression of Interest: midnight on Wednesday 1 February 2023
Proposals reviewed: 2 February 2023 – 20 February 2023
Decisions sent to applicants: From week commencing 20 February 2023

Brent reserves the right to re-open the expression of interest form at a later date, however please note that this is subject to need and is not guaranteed.

Selection process

We will use the information you provide on the expression of interest form to award the grant funding in an efficient, open and transparent way according to the DfE HAF programme standards, aims, objectives and stipulated funding criteria. Applications will be assessed by a panel of council officers, and scored out of 5 against the following criteria:

each of the 6 HAF standards and DfE requirements outlined in the ‘HAF Programme standards and requirements for providers’ section above
value for money
links to Brent and / or the Brent community
previous experience running HAF (or similar) programmes and delivery quality.
equality, diversity and inclusion.

The expression of interest scoring criteria is outlined below:

5 - Outstanding: The information submitted provides good evidence that all the relevant submission criteria can be met and the proposal is outstanding. Exemplary, provides full confidence and no concerns.
4 - Good: The information submitted provides good evidence that all the relevant criteria can be met. Full and robust response, any concerns are addressed so that the proposal gives confidence.
3 - Satisfactory: The information submitted provides some good evidence to meet the relevant submission criteria. It is satisfactory in most respects and there are no major concerns.
2 - Some Reservations: The information submitted has some minor omissions in respect of the relevant submission criteria. The response satisfies the basic minimum requirements in some respects but is unsatisfactory in other respects and raises some concerns.
1 - Major Reservations: The information submitted has insufficient evidence that the specified criteria can be met. Significant omissions, serious and/or many concerns.
0 - Unacceptable: The bid does not offer this element of the programme, or fundamentally fails to meet the relevant submission requirements to address the Council’s requirements. Insufficient evidence that the specified criteria can be met.

What happens next

We will let you know if your expression of interest for HAF programme grant funding has been successful as soon as possible after your proposal has been reviewed.

We will require organisations receiving funding to provide us with key performance data for monitoring purposes, e.g. on the number of children who attend who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.

You can find more information about the HAF programme on the Department for Education’s website.

Information for professionals

If you work with children and young people who receive benefits related free school meals, please share information on the programme with them and their families, to encourage them to access the offer. Parents and carer of children who receive benefits related free school meals should receive confirmation of their child's HAF eligibility via the supermarket vouchers issued ahead of each school holiday that are funded via the government’s Household Support Fund.

If the children and young people you work with don’t receive benefits related free school meals, but you believe that they could benefit from the programme, they may be able to access a HAF programme place if they meet the other HAF programme eligibility criteria. Please email haf@brent.gov.uk for full details of this additional eligibility criteria.

To refer children and young people into the HAF programme, please provide them with written confirmation of their HAF eligibility, confirming whether they are accessing the programme via their FSM entitlement or they meet another eligibility criteria. Children, young people and parent/carers will then be able to use this when booking a place.