ACCESS to free holiday acitivities and childcare have changed across Solihull.
Solihull Council’s cabinet made urgent changes to the criteria of which children are eligible for the Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAFP) after government funding was slashed.
Senior Councillors were told they urgently needed to make changes to a programme which supports thousands of lower-income families during the school holidays or risk not having funding to run it this summer.
Despite concerns about the lack of time to scrutinise the issue the Cabinet approved that only children and young people who are vulnerable, or from families on low incomes, are included in HAFP.
This includes children on a Child Protection Plan (CPP), children in need and children on a targeted help plan.
Officers said this means the Council remains compliant with the UK government’s funding rules, whilst also continuing to trust that professionals in regular contact with children and families are best placed to understand who can most benefit from participation in HAFP.
At the meeting officers told the Cabinet there are over 10,000 children and young people who are eligible for HAFP in the borough because of their FSM status.
And each year approximately 4,000 children and young people participate in the Solihull HAFP, with over 2,500 participating during the summer holidays.
The Programme is a UK government-funded scheme that provides free-to-access holiday activities, meals and childcare places for children and young people from low-income families.
The government has extend the HAFP for a further three years until 2028/29.
But in a report officers said this bring several challenges and issues that the Council needs to respond to and manage.
The first being the amount of funding Solihull Council receives to deliver HAFP each year has been reduced from £962,410 to £925,760 and is fixed at this amount for the next three years.
This is set against rising eligibility and demand for places, alongside increasing delivery costs.
To be eligible for a place in the HAFP, children and young people must be aged four and 16 and be in receipt of benefits-related free school meals (FSM).
The government also encourages local authorities to use up to 15 per cent of funding to provide places to other children and young people that might benefit from participation in the HAFP.
The programme was rolled out across the UK in 2021, in recognition of the pressures that low-income families can experience during the school holidays, and the adverse impact that extended periods away from school can have on children and young people.
