Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Child Poverty Strategy will include the Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.

The Child Poverty Taskforce will consider the range of policies which can boost household incomes and tackle essential costs: government-funded childcare support including during the school holidays can both tackle families’ essential costs and support parents to work boosting incomes. More detail on the approach and priorities for the Strategy is set out in the 23 October publication ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, which is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.

The holiday activities and food programme provides free childcare places, enriching activities and healthy meals to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning throughout the school holidays.