Holiday Activity and Food Programme Summer 2025

Aim of the Holiday Activity and Food Programme

Preston City Council has been allocated Department of Education funding from Lancashire County Council to provide a free holiday activity and food programme aimed at children and young people on benefits related free school meals (FSM) and vulnerable children, for 24 days in total over the year.

This is split into 4 days at Easter, 16 days in summer and 4 days at Winter.

To enable us to begin allocating grant funding, we have set out an Expression of Interest (EOI) form to gather relevant information from potential providers of this provision in Preston. This will help us to identify how much capacity there is and any delivery gaps that there may be, as well as any support/training needs for our delivery partners.

The daily HAF programme should consist of

A minimum of 4 hours of face-to-face provision at every venue.
The provision of a meal (ideally a healthy, hot meal) each day, plus healthy snacks and water.
A timetable of sports, arts and life/character skills building activities each day such as football, multi-skill activities, rock climbing, swimming, cookery skills, dance, drama, media, wheelchair sports, science experiments, wildlife, arts classes, and team challenges and outdoor pursuits.
Some free time to play and connect with friends to reduce social isolation outside of the daily provision, but this should only make up a small portion of the day.
Offer a range of 'non sporty' activities to create a wide appeal to those not into physical activities.

The programme should also include discussions on areas such as:

What makes a healthy family?
Healthy balanced meals and snacks
Portions and portion sizes
Getting active as a family
Family mealtimes
Importance of health and wellbeing.

Eligibility Criteria

Preston City Council would like to work alongside organisations who meet the following criteria:

Whose venue is based in any ward within the City of Preston.
Has an active business bank account and the organisation can provide end of year financial accounts, or 3 months bank statements.
Has public liability insurance, and employers' liability cover (where relevant.), and all policies as referenced within the EOI form.
Who proposes to deliver HAF for chosen date/s, Monday to Friday, from 21 July 2025 to 29 August 2025.
Who proposes to deliver their HAF venue for a maximum of 16 days.

Application Process

To apply to be a HAF provider in Preston, organisations must read complete the Expression of Interest form, you can do this by completing our online form or by downloading the application form. If you are completing the application form offline please return the form by email to holidayactivities@preston.gov.uk by 12.00 midday on Monday 2 June 2025.

Complete the HAF provider online expression of Interest form

Any applications received after the deadline will not be considered for the Summer 2025 delivery in Preston.

Delivery of HAF provision

New to summer 2025, organisations can decide on three options for how long, each day, their venue will be delivering the HAF provision.

Organisations can propose to deliver one of the following:

4 hours per day - £14 per place

6 hours per day - £17 per place

8 hours per day - £20 per place

Each provider can also request an additional £5 food allowance per attended place, per day.

A requirement to receive the food allowance is that a hot meal must be offered to children who attend the HAF venue.

Evaluation and post-application

Once an expression of interest form has been received, a panel of three Preston City Council Officers will shortlist all projects that meet the funding criteria and will give one of the following decisions to your organisation:

'Accept with full allocation'

'Accept with part allocation'

'Resubmit'

'Reject'

The number of places to be allocated to your organisation are at the discretion of Preston City Council. This includes the option to offer a reduced number of places to your venue than requested.

Preston City Council will evaluate your application based on the detail provided within a submitted EOI form and the panel will evaluate the answers to every question. Please provide as much detail as possible when completing your EOI form. This is a competitive process.

We may seek to contact your organisation to discuss your provision in more detail, where relevant. Preston City Council will assign your provision a result and number of places per day and notify your organisation of the decision within a reasonable timeframe.

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