Submitted by John on 18 Jun 2021 - 11:47am
The following is guidance provided by the Council and The Junction Foundation to assist organisations applying to the Holiday Activity Fund.
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The local requirements for organisations delivering the Holiday Activities Fund in South Tees are based on the standards set out by the Department for Education nationally. Every Local Authority in England has been provided with this funding and is being held to the same standard.
We accept that some of the requirements may seem challenging for some organisations, but we encourage you to think creatively and not be put off applying. For further guidance, please contact holidayfoodandactivities@middlesbrough.gov.uk and simon.nott@thejunctionfoundation.com
To cover a few of the issues that we are aware of:
- The hot food requirement – the HAF is a key part of the Government’s response to the issue of holiday hunger and as such, the hot meal to be delivered in HAF clubs is there to replace what the child or young person would normally have received if they were in school. Hence it is an integral aspect of the programme.
The DfE FAQ document does make some allowances:
“We expect that the food will meet the school food standards, ensuring all children receive a healthy, balanced meal. There is no requirement for the meals to all be hot, however it may be tricky to provide a good variety of food if sticking only to cold meals, and we would encourage hot meals where possible.”
Locally, we do have a strong preference for the meals that are provided as part of the HAF to be hot. However, we have accepted the feedback from some providers and where the hot meal requirement is insurmountable (see additional guidance on solutions below), providing cold meals would be acceptable as a last resort. These meals must still be to the school food standards and provide a variety of options over the duration of your HAF provision.
- Sourcing hot meals – organisations who specialise in areas such as sports coaching may not have experience in providing hot meals, especially not to the school food standards. We encourage partners to think creatively about not necessarily how but who could deliver this element. This might for example be a local restaurant.
We have provided guidance on how to select food businesses who you might partner with in our grant documentation (e.g. with a food hygiene rating of three and above) and then for them (the food business) to understand the requirements.
If you are unsure about this element, please contact us. Where appropriate, we may be able to support introductions to food businesses and are already actively working up a database of willing partners (e.g. restaurants).
- Registering as a food business – it is a legal requirement for any organisation producing and distributing food to be registered as a food business. This is a free and simple process to register. Listening to feedback, we understand that this has been a source of concern for some potential providers; however, we still encourage all providers to bid and that we can support organisations through this requirement post-award.
One means around this is to outsource the food element as discussed above in the sourcing hot meals section (i.e. to an existing food business).
- The 4 x 4 x 4 model – the requirement from the Department for Education is that the provision made available to the child or young person during the summer lasts for four hours a day for four days a week for four weeks (with some flexibility around this as per our grant process documentation).
We are aware that this model may be beyond some providers for a number of reasons. As with the HAF process in general, we encourage organisations to collaborate with others – it is fully acceptable for one organisation to deliver part of the required duration of clubs and another to deliver the rest as long as the child or young person could feasibly access a 4 x 4 x 4 model across the two when combined. Where providers are considering this, the focus should be on the ability of the individual child or young person to access the provision across the two (or more) different providers (i.e. it should be in similar geographical area and not delivered at the same time).
If you are unsure about this element, please contact us. Where appropriate, we may be able to support introductions to other providers operating in your target area.
