FAQs

You can email us at HAFprogramme@LBBD.gov.uk

Yes. We will offer email support and regular online meetings, both before and during HAF. We will also carry out visits when the programme is delivered. We expect you to write the bids yourselves, but will provide some guidance. So it’s important you participate in online meetings.

Both. The application is available online. We will be uploading a printable version also. So you can choose whether to complete the online document or email us a Word version.

The HAF programme is for children who live in or go to school in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and are in reception to year 11 who qualify for benefits-related Free School Meals (FSM), also known as Pupil Premium. These are children who are rising 5s to 16 year olds. Any 4 year olds on the programme must be in reception, not nursery. 

Not all the children in reception to year 2 who receive Infant Free School Meals are eligible for HAF. You will need to check those children qualify for benefits-related FSM. More information is here: Apply for free school meals - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Yes. However, the HAF funding can only be used for FSM eligible children. You can use your other funding sources for children who are not eligible for HAF. This might include offering paid places to working parents. A paid place should not take the place of a HAF place.

Yes. All of your staff who have unsupervised access to children to have an enhanced DBS check including a check of the barred lists. More information on DBS checks are here: DBS checks: guidance for employers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

No. In order to meet fair process rules we are running the application process through One Borough Voice and will be scoring against the guidance outcomes.

The school holidays are from Wednesday 22^nd December 2022 until Monday 3^rd January 2022. However, most schools are taking inset days on Tuesday 21^st December and are taking Tuesday 4^th January 2022 as an extra days holiday due to the Platinum Jubilee.  So you can plan to deliver HAF anytime including Tuesday 21^st December 2021 to Tuesday 4^th January 2022.

Yes. You can be flexible with the days and times you plan to offer HAF. You must run HAF for at least 16 hours, and each child or young person should have a minimum 16 hour HAF place. This could be 4 hours over 4 days, or you may want to offer it over evenings and weekends, or longer sessions over fewer days. For example, you might want to offer HAF as 2 x 8 hour days. If you do a longer day you will need to offer more than one meal.

For summer, the expectation was that HAF sessions lasted for a minimum of four hours. 

If you are running the type of face-to-face provision that you operated at Easter and summer, then we expect the sessions to last for at least four hours. If you are running a festival or fayre, then we would expect the offer to be available for at least four hours, but we do not expect all children and families to attend for a minimum of four hours. But we do expect these events to include both food and activities for attendees. Similarly, if you are running day trips or days out then we do not expect all attendees to go for a minimum of four hours, but they should include both food and activities.

No. We know that the HAF programme offers a wide range of support for families and goes well beyond the delivery of food and activities: it’s a point of contact for children and families during holiday periods that can be vital for them in accessing support and services and that holiday provision is most effective when it is delivered face to face.

Yes. Unlike the Summer programme where sandwich lunches were available, all providers are expected to offer hot food during the Winter HAF programme.

No. You can partner with the school catering service, BDTP, who can prepare and deliver the hot meals. If you would like to make the food yourselves, you can do so.

The government don’t anticipate any further lockdowns at present. In the unlikely event there is a full lockdown, we would expect you to provide:

• High quality and seasonal recipe boxes or food parcels that provide healthy meals
• Activity packs
• Access to online activities and support

Both - we will be doing a borough-wide promotion, and targeting eligible families, but we also expect providers to advertise their HAF programme themselves and reach out to families they may already be in contact with.

No. You cannot use HAF funding to buy presents.

No. You cannot use HAF funding to provide families with vouchers. If you have an alternative source of funding you can use this for anything else you’d like to provide to families.

You will receive half the costs upfront, and the other half after you submit satisfactory monitoring data in January 2022.

All slides and recordings will be available on One Borough Live. 

Link: https://oneboroughvoice.lbbd.gov.uk/haf-fund-2021

Video: Holiday Activities and Food Programme Fund 2021 | One Borough Voice (lbbd.gov.uk)