Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme

The annual report provides you with the opportunity to give an overview of the HAF 2024-25 programme in your Local Authority (LA).

 Your report should include:

• the overall funding from DfE that you have spent on the HAF programme
• the proportion of the funding that was spent on administration and a breakdown of how this was spent
• how many unique children you have reached in each holiday period
• the proportion of primary age and secondary age children who have participated in your programme
• the number of children with SEND or additional needs who have participated in your programme
• information on the families and carers you have engaged with through the food education, signposting and referrals aspect of their programme
• which organisations are represented on your steering group
• which organisations you have worked with in delivering the programme
• any additional match funding you have received from organisations and or other government bodies that you have used on the HAF programme

Please also include:

• feedback from participants, their families or carers
• results of any survey
• case studies or particular highlights
• how you have promoted the programme and celebrated it through the media and social media
• any evaluations of your HAF programme (please provide links in your annual report)

The report for the 2024-2025 HAF programme should be submitted to DfE by 30 June 2025.

While LAs have flexibility in how they format and present their annual report, we have provided this document as a guide to help you structure your report.

This is an optional template to use. You are welcome to produce your own report as you deem appropriate. Please complete and submit to [email protected] by 30 June 2025. 

When submitting your report please include a link to the relevant webpage you post it to.

Section 1 - Local Authority details

Which local authority is this report about?

West Northamptonshire

Section 2 – Highlights

In this section, you might cover how much funding you received and how it was spent and how many children you’ve worked with across the year. You might also include how many sessions you’ve delivered and which organisations you’ve worked with and provide details about who forms your HAF steering group and what the key strategies and themes have been for 2024-2025.

The 2024 HAF programme in West Northamptonshire continues to grow and develop in terms of the number of providers working on the programme, the number of camps offered, the number of places available and the different camps and activities offered. We have continued to recruit new providers to supplement our regular providers, offering a comprehensive and diverse programme across the authority area.

The Easter 2024 HAF programme in West Northamptonshire was delivered between Monday 2nd April 2024 and Thursday 12th April 2024, a total of 9 delivery days. We had good engagement with schools and partners to ensure vouchers were sent to eligible families and those in greatest need. Our bookings exceeded the number of places available by 13% with 86% attendance of places booked. 34 providers were involved in Easter HAF delivery.

The summer holiday programme was delivered from Wednesday 24th July 2024 to Tuesday 3rd September 2024, a total of 29 days of delivery. Bookings were strong and 48% of our providers exceeded their capacity. Our bookings exceeded the number of places available by 16% with 81% attendance of places booked. 39 providers were involved in the summer HAF programme.

Winter delivery went as well as we could have hoped. Numbers booking on to HAF were strong and 82% of providers either overbooked places or reached their target numbers. We were overbooked by 20% with 83% attendance. 22 providers were involved in the Winter HAF programme.

3,887 individuals attended at least 1 HAF camp during 2024, with 22% of attendees having special educational needs.

Price per head

• Price per head based on number of places secured (Amount spent including administration divided by number of places) - £32.40
• Actual price per head is: £34.06 (Amount spent including administration divided by actual attendance)
• Grant awarded: £1,110,520
• Delivery expenditure: £998,565
• Administration: £111,485
• Capital Expenditure: £470

The steering group is chaired by Local Authority Education Commissioning and attended by representatives from the Local Authority healthy schools team, community development, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Short breaks service, alongside Northamptonshire Sport and the West Northamptonshire Parent Voice forum and new members are being added as identified by the chair.

Key themes for 2024 were to diverse the offer, identify opportunities for SEN students, increase the range of secondary school aged opportunities. Furthermore, the investment into the nutritional element of HAF continued with the partnership with the University of Northampton leading to significant insight and support to providers and families.

The University of Northampton PHD researcher has produced a number of reports on the topic, shares this with providers and families and has developed a range of resources for providers to use.

Section 3 – Children and families feedback

Please provide links to social media activity/videos as well as testimonials or feedback that you have received about your 2024-25 HAF Programme

A selection of quotes received from parents:

“Our kids had an absolute blast at the Easter Holiday Club! They came home each day brimming with excitement, telling us all about the fun activities they participated in. Thank you to the amazing team for providing such a wonderful experience!”

“As a parent, it was incredibly heartwarming to see how much our children enjoyed themselves at the Holiday Club. They not only had fun but also learned new skills and made new friends. We’re already looking forward to the next one".

“We were initially hesitant to enroll our children in the Holiday Club, but it turned out to be the best decision we made! The team went above and beyond to ensure the safety and well-being of all the children while creating a positive and inclusive environment. We couldn’t be happier with the experience!”

"This was the best holiday club my kids have ever attended. They came home every day full of stories and excitement. Thank you for making their summer so special!"

"I cannot express how much this club has helped us as a family. Knowing our kids were safe allowed us to focus on work without worrying and they loved it."

"They have made friends with a lot of the children and have had a fab time."

Section 4 - Food

In this section you might cover: Did you provide children and young people with at least one nutritious meal a day? Did you work in any partnerships to provide food? What were the children and young people’s attitudes to the food you provided?

The food offered in West Northamptonshire varies depending on the camp and where the camps are being held. In some camps, such as those delivered by schools and commercial organisations with their own facilities, the food offered is often hot food.

However, in other settings, where it is logistically more of a challenge to serve hot food, the providers opt for a cold meal, such as a packed lunch or a buffet. Most providers will at some point do some food preparation with the participants.

There are no central partnership across the authority that help with the HAF food offer. Providers have developed their own networks to source food. However, some supermarkets have provided support to the food offer (mainly Morrisons and Asda).

Food remains an ongoing issue as some young people do not want the food that is offered, often bringing their own food. Providers work hard to offer a wide variety of food and with the work being done with the University of Northampton, we are developing insight into the views of children and parents on the food offer. Challenges still remain around sourcing food, especially hot food at the scale and the locations needed.

See appendix 1 and 2

Section 5 – Enriching Activities

In this section, you might cover: What enrichment activities did you provide? And why did you focus on those? How did your programme provide opportunities for children and young people to develop and consolidate their skills and knowledge and try out new experiences? What was the impact?

The HAF programme in West Northamptonshire continues to evolve and providers work hard to offer enriching activities to their participants.

We have also introduced new providers, whose focus isn’t physical activity. This includes computer coding, arts and crafts, performing arts, equine therapy, music / DJ workshops and in Winter 2024 we offered family experiences at local pantomimes and at Northampton Saints RFC.

For example the UDOIT Dance Foundation said ‘The impact of the camp extended beyond dance moves. It was about building confidence, breaking down walls of uncertainty, and watching shy children transform into beaming pillars of self-assurance. Parents and carers witnessed this metamorphosis, their trust in the foundation's quality provision growing with each step and spin their children took.’

Live, Love BE provided equine therapy sessions and reported ‘It was observed that throughout the day the young people appeared to be having an enjoyable time interacting with the horses and each other, they were engaged and relaxed and made to feel comfortable in the environment. As a result, their confidence grew and they were communicative and responsive.’ 

We encourage all providers to diverse the range of opportunities they provide. Many providers include trips and visit to local attractions as part of their offer, with visits include local museums, sports facilities, swimming pools, parks and other outdoor spaces. Other providers have themed days such as Harry Potter, Marvel and Disney events so they can offer other enrichment activities.

Please see the case study attached from UDOIT.

Section 6 – Physical Activities

In this section, you might cover: What range of physical activities did you incorporate into your programme? And why did you focus on these? How did you ensure the physical activities you delivered were engaging and inclusive? Did you have any particular successes or highlights?

Physical activity is a key element of the HAF provision across the authority. All providers are supported to offer at least one hour of physical activity per day at their camps. A significant number of providers are physical activity based, such as Premier Sport, Pro Sports and Rhino Sport, whilst others like Freestyle offer specific camps in gymnastics and dance.

The vast majority of providers have a background in sports coaching but for those who don’t, they have access to resources to support them in providing high quality activities; we have also coordinated training to non-sporting organisations on how to effectively incorporate a physical activity offer.

Furthermore, campaigns such as the Daily Mile and Pathway to Paris have been promoted with HAF providers, again providing additional ideas and support to their physical activity programme.

Throughout the year, physical activities covered include archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, bowls, boxing, climbing, cricket, dance, football, fitness, gymnastics, hockey, multi-sports, roller skating, rugby, swimming, table tennis, tennis and volleyball.

Activities were often selected following parent / child involvement in what the programme should include, and providers will also adapt their provision based on feedback from participants. For example, feedback from parent surveys suggested some girls only camps would be good, so we worked with two local organisations to provide these in football and cricket. Unfortunately, the number of bookings was not high.

Another example from the HAF Coordinator: ‘at our HAF camp ran n 2024, we would discuss the programme with the children daily. This is what is on the timetable today, but if we then had children say can we do something else we would then change it if we could. SO, rugby wasn’t popular but free play was, so often children would say no to rugby and we would do free play instead.

That is how it will be – we know this not through evidence but through visit, conversation and experience of how camps run.’

Section 7 – Nutritional Education and the promotion of healthy living/lifestyles

In this section, you might cover: Did your programme deliver activities to educate participants about nutrition? Did you involve parents, carers and other family members in training and advice sessions on nutrition and eating a balanced diet? If yes, how? Do the children and families you worked with now have a better understanding of nutrition and food budgeting? Did their attitudes change over the period of the programme?

Northamptonshire Sport has been working with The University of Northampton on a food and nutrition project. In 2024, providers were supported to offer a variety of opportunities for nutritional education including trying new foods, cooking and fun food related activities. If you would like to read more about this research please contact Northamptonshire Sport.

Alongside the Easter and Summer HAF sessions, a series of workshops were held with Providers, where they worked with the University team to develop a suite of reliable resources to assist providers with their delivery. Providers were able to input and feedback on the design, with the resources launched ahead of the Winter 2024 HAF programme.

This has led to the creation of a web based resources, offering lessons plans and resources for providers to use across all of their provision.

Read more about the resources provided. Please contact Northamptonshire sport if you have difficulties accessing this information.

The project has not offered classes to parents but it did run a number of focus groups to discuss nutrition with families. The research will form the basis of a PHD submission and lead to published research.

See appendix 1 and 2

Section 8 – Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND)

In this section, you might cover: What provision did you offer for children with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities? Did you offer bespoke provision for these children and young people? How did you ensure that all of the providers you worked with met the needs of children and families?  Do you have strong examples that you could share?

Engagement by children and young people with special educational needs continues to outstrip supply. Over the three programmes, 22% of those attending HAF had a special educational need.

Our bespoke provision in 2024 was limited to one disability organization and a specific SEN focused pantomime performance over the Christmas period, so most of our children with SEN attend non SEN specific camps. We are working hard to identify specific provision for young people with SEN as well as providing training and support to all HAF providers to ensure that they can accommodate children with additional needs.

Training has included Managing Challenging Behaviour, Inclusive practice and Autism awareness. The LA are in discussion with the Short Breaks contractor to look at delivering more specialist SEND training.

We had multiple requests from providers for additional resources, including additional 1-2-1 staffing support, to enable them to cater for children with SEN. We do try to provide as much support as we can to help with the cost of 1-2-1 provision but the budget doesn’t allow for this on a programme wide basis. The LA are in discussion with the Short Breaks and statutory services to look at delivering more specialist SEND training.

Please see the 2 case studies attached from Clubszone Northamptonshire and Live Love Be.

Section 9 – Key challenges

In this section, you should provide details about what the key challenges have been for your programme in 2024-2025.

The main challenges for HAF in 2024 were:

• No shows – 21.6% (2023 – 22.15%)
• Provision in rural areas – we do have providers who want to work in rural areas, but the numbers they need to run camps are often significantly higher than the population of eligible children, so it is not always possible to run the camps from an economic point of view
• SEN provision
• Hot food 

Managing the reduction in payments to providers when children fail to turn up – it is increasingly difficult to ‘punish’ providers by giving them less funding when people don’t turn up – the providers rightly point out that they have refund policies and if you don’t turn up as a paying customer, you lose your money – they want the same to apply with HAF

Section 10 – Marketing and Communication

In this section, you should provide details about how you have communicated with families, schools, providers, and others about your HAF programme. You might include social media engagement, your advertising and marketing strategy.

Marketing activity focused largely on social media promotion. Organic posts to raise awareness of the programme to eligible families were shared on – Facebook, Twitter (X), LinkedIn and Instagram. Key times included the build-up to the Easter, summer and winter holidays. Plus, just before the booking system was made live. Promotion continued throughout the bookable holiday periods.  

When required, activity providers were supported with social media promotion to raise awareness of clubs where take-up is slower.

Press releases were produced and distributed to local media and news outlets. A BBC Radio Northampton interview around HAF, happened on the 20th of July to promote the programme.

The voucher system we use via our booking system also promotes HAF to local families and we work with schools to ensure they share information in their communication to schools.

Section 11 – Additional resources

This section should include any additional, match funding, partnership working, and aligning with other priorities.

In this section, you should include information about whether you received any extra funding, support, resources, food, etc to support and enhance your programme. If you have received any additional match funding, please include a detailed breakdown of how much you have received stating which organisation/ government bodies. Please also include information about how you have aligned and joined up your HAF programme with other programmes and initiatives.

We did not receive any additional funding to supplement HAF.

We have worked with the Household Support Grant team around shared comms and signposting.

Section 12 – Any other information

In this section, you should include any other information about your HAF programme that you want to share.