Aims/priorities: The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme provides healthy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning.
Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. The expansion of the programme year-on-year has meant a total of 5.4 million HAF days provided between Christmas 2022, Easter and summer 2023.
The programme, though aimed at children in receipt of benefits related free school meals (FSM) is not exclusively for them and as set out in this guidance, we encourage local authorities 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 free school meals but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF.
Some important things to consider before applying:-
- All HAF attendees should be registered using the Eequ Booking System
- Daily Registers must be completed using the Eequ Booking System
- 50% payment will be paid prior to delivery. Further funds will be paid post-delivery, based on sessions attended
- The activity timetable and menu provided in your application will make up part of the Quality Assurance process
- It is the responsibility of the provider to ensure that all places funded are used by HAF eligible children
- HAF Signage must be displayed outside and throughout all venues (these will be provided by Oldham Council). Placement and maintenance is the responsibility of the provider
- Department for Education, Oldham Council and Oldham HAF logos must be included in any and all promotional material
Who can apply? We request that you take some time to consider the guidance before submitting your expression of interest to ensure your provision can meet the standards. Please consider carefully how your organisation intends to meet ALL of the required HAF standards.
Grant amount: Not specified.
Application process: The application must be submitted via webform on the Oldham Council website. The link to the webform is here:- https://www.oldham.gov.uk/xfp/form/1183
We will only be accepting applications via this weblink. The webform does not have the functionality to save forms part way through the application process and we would therefore suggest that an initial viewing of the form is undertaken and all required documents are collated before beginning the population of the form. Our web team have advised that due to the requirement to upload documents to the weblink, its best to complete the application via a desktop or laptop, rather than a mobile device. Please be mindful that the webpage will timeout after 30 minutes of inactivity. For ease a Word version of the webform can be found here. Whilst we are not able to accept a final submission in this format you will be able to view the questions prior to beginning the webform.
We have provided a link to the DfE guidance here; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/holiday-activities-and-food-programme/holiday-activites-and-food-programme-2024 . We request that you take some time to consider the guidance before submitting your expression of interest to ensure your provision can meet the standards. Please consider carefully how your organisation intends to meet ALL of the required HAF standards. Take some time to consider these questions carefully as they will make up a key element of the panel’s decision making process. It is vital that the team delivering your sessions are aware of the expectations of the programme, how you have stated you will meet them and are able to fulfil them during the delivery period.
We have included guidance to support with the completion of the application into the Frequently Asked Questions document on the front page of the above link. Please refer to this for any clarity.
You will also find the budget proposal proforma here, please use this to break down the amount you are bidding for and upload to the webform when prompted. Please be sure to delete all the example cells before you start to complete this document. Budget proposals in other formats will not be considered
Deadline: Monday 27 October 2025, 09:30am.
Contact information: Email: Carrie-Ann.Varey@oldham.gov.uk
Website: Holiday activities and food programme 2024 - GOV.UK