Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme summary

At the end of 2020, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme will be expanded across the whole of England in 2021. Funding is being provided to local authorities to co-ordinate a programme that provides healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children during the summer and Christmas school holidays.

School holidays can put pressure on some families because of increased costs (such as food and childcare) and reduced incomes. For some children that can lead to a holiday experience gap, with children from disadvantaged families:

• less likely to access organised out-of-school activities
• more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health
• more likely to experience social isolation

Applications for the Summer holiday 2022 will open at the end of April 2022 and will close on 30 May 2022. We are particularly encouraging bids that provide for children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), and that are based in the South of the borough, though North Croydon provision is of course still welcomed. 

Support

Please contact us if you have any questions: HAFprogramme@croydon.gov.uk

For more details regarding the Holiday Activity and Food Programme, visit the guidance page on the DfE website.