Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme West Sussex - Expression of Interest:

2025 Programme Overview

Funds have been made available to every local authority in England to coordinate free holiday provision with a healthy meal and enriching activities for children eligible for means tested Free School Meals (FSM). The funding is to create a Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme during the main school holidays in 2025. Following the success of the 2024 HAF programme West Sussex County Council want to increase the provision available for eligible children during the Easter, Summer and Winter Holidays in 2025.

What providers need to consider:

For more information on the national programme please visit the Government's website.

West Sussex County Council are looking for providers for the three main school holidays to enable a broad county wide programme. The following expectations from the Department for Education (DfE) need to be considered:

• HAF provision is for children in receipt of benefit related Free School Meals - the enclosed FSM data indicates the target areas across West Sussex.
• Eligible children should be able to access 96 hours across the three main school holidays:
  • Easter:- at least four hours of provision a day, for four days.
  • Summer:- at least four hours of provision a day, for four days over four weeks.
  • Winter:- at least four hours of provision a day, for four days.

There is flexibility on how the equivalent level of provision is delivered during each holiday and the 4 days each do not have to run consecutively and can be split across the number of weeks across the whole holiday. West Sussex will no longer accept bids that exceed the number of days outlined above.

Face-to-face provision with a hot meal remains the central priority for the council, and in the first instance we are looking for offers of four days of face-to-face holiday clubs where that is possible.

The council is interested in proposals from providers who can deliver within one or more areas in the county, and from providers who would be interested in 'scaling up' their current provision, to meet the needs of a wider cohort of children and families within West Sussex.

For any provider who had not delivered HAF in West Sussex before, the council will limit the number of places to 10 HAF children per site per day, evidence shows that new HAF clubs can take time to grow and this approach offers providers the chance to deliver HAF and offer value for money.

If you chose to deliver activities only, you will be paired with a pre-approved catering service to deliver the food element of the HAF programme.

The grant allocation process:

Proposals must be submitted using the online Expression of Interest (EOI). This will enable us to award grants in an efficient and transparent manner according to agreed funding specifications.

Your EOI should include:

• A clear proposal of your activity and how you will meet the HAF Framework of Standards
• Self-Assessment on your Policies and Procedures
• Funding Template (downloadable on the right)
• Example activity plans
• Example Menus

We recommend that you have all the necessary documentation ready to attach before you start completing the online EOI form.

The deadlines to submit an EOI form are listed below.

Please Note: The EOI submission window will be closed between the 8th January-29th February 2024 & 30th April - 29th August 2024.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion:

Providers will be asked to consider and identify how they propose to meet the needs of diverse groups i.e. food provision which cater for religious beliefs, activities which are gender-aware and inclusive for children with additional needs or disabilities.

How to get your questions answered:

If you have questions about the programme please get in touch to find out more about the programme or with any queries. You can contact us via email at HAF@westsussex.gov.uk.

Accessibility statement

If you require any of this information in an alternative format, then please contact us via email at HAF@westsussex.gov.uk or by telephone on 03302224144 and we will do our best to assist you. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on 18001 03302224144.

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