Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to adjust the eligibility criteria of the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme to better target support and reduce stigma for those attending HAF schemes.

The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme, although aimed at those children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals (FSM), is not exclusively for them. As set out in the HAF guidance, while the majority of funding that local authorities receive should be used for holiday club places for children in receipt of 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.

Many holiday clubs provide a mixture of HAF and paid-for places for children. Where this is the case, children funded through HAF must be provided with the same food and treated equally.