Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the participation of young people in (a) summer schemes and (b) clubs during the school holidays; and what funding she has provided to help such activities in St Helens.

The department’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £200 million per year to 2025, provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families over the holidays. Local authorities have flexibility in how the programme can be delivered to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or additional needs who are in receipt of free school meals, ensuring it is tailored to meet the needs of those children and their families.

HAF is a voluntary programme for eligible children, and families can therefore choose whether their children attend. It is pleasing that the programme reached so many children last summer.

This year, the department has allocated £751,570 to the St Helens local authority, building on the £743,290 that was allocated to them for 2022/23.