Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the importance of summer camps for young people; and what support they currently give to summer camps, particularly those helping children and young people from deprived communities.

The department recognises the significant benefits that summer camps can have for children’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as their educational and social development, and the particular value that this has for children and young people from deprived communities.

As announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer as part of the Spending Review, on 27 October 2021, the government will be providing over £200 million a year for the continuation of the holiday activities and food programme. This offers valuable support to families on lower incomes by providing enriching activities and healthy meals for disadvantaged children during school holidays. Local authorities will be able to use the funding for this programme, which is delivered through grants, to arrange childcare provision through a range of settings, including summer camps.

In addition, £60 million of the £750 million package for the voluntary and charity sector, has been directed towards organisations supporting children and young people. More recently, a £16.5 million youth COVID-19 support fund has been announced, which will protect the immediate future of grassroots and national youth organisations across the country. A press release about this support fund is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-165-million-youth-covid-19-support-fund. This is on top of the £200 million government investment in early intervention and prevention support initiatives to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund.

The department also supports a number of initiatives to expand access to high-quality, extra-curricular activities for all children and young people. Many of these activities operate over the summer and include:

• Investing £3.4 million over 3 academic years to support the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to expand into more schools in the most deprived areas of England, enabling access to young people who may previously have faced barriers to taking part. The department’s Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expansion initiative aims to support up to 291 schools not currently delivering the Award.

• Supporting children and young people’s wellbeing over the summer holidays, by making up to £200 million available for secondary schools to deliver face-to-face summer schools in summer 2021, giving secondary pupils access to enrichment activities (such as games, music, drama and sports) that they have missed out on during the COVID-19 outbreak, and updating the pupil premium guidance. This update allows schools to use their pupil premium grant to offer a flexible, broad range of extracurricular activities.

We are examining the research findings for the summer schools 2021 programme, which are due to be published in March. This is part of the department’s continued assessment of the impact of all education recovery programmes and we will continue to revise guidance on development and implementation of existing programmes, including where these programmes could provide support out of hours and term time.