Brent Holiday Activities and Food Programme Expression of Interest | 2022

Brent Council has been awarded funding from the Department for Education to deliver the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme in 2022, as part of a national scheme. The aim of the programme is to support the physical and mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, encouraging them to engage in interactive and fun activities.

The programme will offer free places at holiday provision in the Easter, summer and Christmas school holidays in 2022 for school-aged children in Reception to Year 11 who are in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. Please note, there is also flexibility to provide some places for children and young people who are considered as otherwise vulnerable. Holiday provision can also be open to non-eligible children, but their participation will not be funded through the government grant.

The HAF Programme needs to provide activities for the equivalent of at least 4 hours a day, 4 days a week over 4 weeks during the summer, and a week at both the Easter and Christmas holidays. Please note that the duration of your provision can be flexible, and it is not a requirement for individual providers to cover all weeks that the programme runs.

We are keen to work in partnership with local organisations, schools and the community and voluntary sector to offer a varied and wide range of activities. We are seeking expressions of interest from providers who would like to run holiday provision in 2022. Activities will be face-to-face, subject to any changes in national guidance.

Aims and Requirements:

The aims of the programme are for children who attend:

• To eat more healthily over the school holidays;
• To be more active during the school holidays;
• To take part in engaging and enriching activities which support the development of

  Resilience, character and wellbeing along with their wider educational attainment;

• To be safe and not to be socially isolated;
• To have greater knowledge of health nutrition; and
• To be more engaged with school and other local services.

  The programme also aims to ensure that families who participate in this programme:

• Develop their understanding of nutrition and food budgeting;
• Are signposted towards other information and support, for example, health, employment, and education.

We welcome expressions of interest from local partner organisations that can help deliver the Brent HAF programme, ensuring that the below DfE standards and requirements are met:

1. Healthy meals: provide at least one healthy meal a day and must meet the School Food Standards throughout the day. The expectation is that the food served by providers should be hot, although we acknowledge that there may be times (e.g. trips), where cold food is most appropriate.
2. Enriching activities: provide fun and enriching activities that give children opportunities to develop or consolidate skills or knowledge.
3. Physical activities: offer activities that meet Physical Activity Guidelines on a daily basis.
4. Nutritional education: daily activities aimed at improving children’s knowledge and

   awareness of healthy eating, e.g. trying new food, getting children involved in cooking.
   

5. Food education for families and carers: HAF providers should make available weekly training and advice sessions for parents, carers or other family members. These should provide advice on how to source, prepare and cook nutritious and low-cost food.
6. Signposting and referrals: provide information, signposting or referrals to other services, and support that would benefit the children who attend their provision and their families.
7. Policies and procedures: demonstrate and explain their safeguarding arrangements and have relevant and appropriate policies and procedures in place in relation to: safeguarding, health and safety, insurance, accessibility and inclusiveness. Where appropriate, clubs must also be compliant with the Ofsted requirements for working with children.

Expression of interest for HAF Grant Funding:

If you are interested in being part of the Brent HAF Programme, please outline your proposal, by completing an expression of interest form. We are interested in expressions of interest from consortia, but please indicate if you would like help to identify a partner to work with.

We will use the information you provide on the expression of interest form to award the grant funding in an efficient, open and transparent way according to the DfE HAF programme standards, aims, objectives and stipulated funding criteria. Expressions of interest will be assessed by a panel of council officers, and scored out of 5 against the following criteria:

• Each of the 7 HAF standards and DfE requirements outlined above.
• Value for money.
• Links to Brent and / or the Brent community.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion.

The expression of interest scoring criteria is outlined below:

• 5 (Outstanding): The information submitted provides good evidence that all the relevant submission criteria can be met and the proposal is outstanding. Exemplary, provides full confidence and no concerns.
• 4 (Good): The information submitted provides good evidence that all the relevant criteria can be met. Full and robust response, any concerns are addressed so that the proposal gives confidence.\
• 3 (Satisfactory): The information submitted provides some good evidence to meet the relevant submission criteria. It is satisfactory in most respects and there are no major concerns.
• 2 (Some Reservations): The information submitted has some minor omissions in respect of the relevant submission criteria. The response satisfies the basic minimum requirements in some respects but is unsatisfactory in other respects and raises some concerns.
• 1 (Major Reservations): The information submitted has insufficient evidence that the specified criteria can be met. Significant omissions, serious and/or many concerns.
• 0 (Unacceptable): The bid does not offer this element of the programme, or fundamentally fails to meet the relevant submission requirements to address the Council’s requirements. Insufficient evidence that the specified criteria can be met.

  We will let you know if your proposal has been successful as soon as possible after your proposal has been reviewed.

  Please submit expressions of interest for the Christmas holidays as soon as possible and by midnight on 24th October 2022. We will require organisations receiving funding to provide us with key performance data for monitoring purposes, e.g. on the number of children who attend who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.

  If you have any questions, or would like to discuss any aspects of the HAF Programme, please get in touch via HAF@brent.gov.uk.
  

  
  

  If you would like to receive information regarding future holiday periods, and to find out as soon as the form re-opens, please email HAF@brent.gov.uk and you will be added to the HAF programme mailing list.

  For more details on the HAF programme and its requirements, please visit:
  
  Brent website: https://www.brent.gov.uk/haf#w...
  
  DfE website: https://www.gov.uk/government/...