Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of expanding the Holiday Activities and Food programme to all (a) families in receipt of Universal Credit and (b) children and young people living in areas of high multiple deprivation.

The holiday activities and food programme (HAF) supports disadvantaged children and their families during the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things, improving socialisation and benefiting their health and wellbeing during school holidays.

The HAF programme guidance sets out that: “While the majority of funding that local authorities receive should be used for holiday club places for children in receipt of free school meals (FSM), local authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children who are not in receipt of benefits-related FSM, but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision”.