Holiday Activities and Food Programme

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. 

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.