This page gives a summary of the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme events that took place across Devon over Easter 2023.
Overview
We had 57 activity providers offering a wide variety of activities and a total of 6,412 places across Devon this Easter.
A HAF place is four hours, two days per week over two weeks in the Easter holiday (total 4 days).
The total number of HAF-funded unique attendees this Easter was 1,892, of whom 1,509 were of primary age and 383 were of secondary age.
Attendance
The table below shows the breakdown of the children and young people who attended the HAF scheme in Devon over Easter 2022.
Please note that FSM refers to free school meals and SEND denotes special educational needs and disabilities.
| Summer HAF figures 2022 | Primary age | Secondary age | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSM-eligible + non-SEND | 1,064 | 233 | 1,297 |
| FSM-eligible + SEND | 230 | 72 | 302 |
| Not FSM-eligible + non-SEND | 117 | 34 | 151 |
| Not FSM-eligible + SEND | 98 | 44 | 142 |
| TOTAL number of HAF funded FSM eligible attendees (sum of above) | 1,509 | 383 | 1,892 |
| Other (free) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other (paid for) | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| TOTAL number of attendees (sum of all including others) | 1,510 | 389 | 1,899 |
As shown in the table above, a total of 1,899 children (1,510 primary age and 389 secondary age) who are FSM-eligible attended HAF events over Easter 2023.
SEND attendance
There were 444 individual children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who attended the HAF Easter 2023 scheme.
Of these young people, 302 (230 primary and 72 secondary) were eligible FSM, while 142 (98 primary and 44 secondary) were not eligible for FSM.
No shows and empty places
Unfortunately, for Easter we had 974 places (906 primary and 68 secondary) booked by parents who did not attend their booking. This has led us to introduce a non-attendance policy for Summer 2023.
Other eligible children
15% of the budget can be used for children who are outside of the FSM category, and this can include children with SEND. Following feedback form Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD) last year, extra effort went into ensuring we have removed any possible barriers for parents of children with SEND. We insist all HAF schemes are inclusive and have set aside further funding to help pay for 1:1 support worker.
Recruitment of support workers is, as is the case in all sectors, currently a challenge for providers, so the number of places would be dependent on the staffing available. We have tried to be creative in finding solutions to this, so we have invited parents and enablers to attend schemes alongside their child.
We would want to encourage parents to inform the provider at the time of booking of their child’s needs so we can ensure they have a great time, and their needs can be met before they start their HAF sessions.
Parents or carers
We carried out a consultation with parents/carers (hereafter referred to as “parents”) at the end of the Easter holiday to gather their feedback.
We had 254 responses. An impressive 186 parents rated the HAF scheme as ‘excellent’. A further 53 respondents said the scheme was ‘good’.
When asked how the scheme could be improved, parents told us that they wanted more of it in more of the school holidays. The Department for Education (DfE) only fund the scheme for four days at Easter, 16 days in summer and four days at Christmas, so we are unable to extend the offer without further funding.
We will be working with our HAF providers to ensure that they can offer parents help with how to pay for childcare using the existing government funding streams. We are also supporting some of the HAF providers to register with Ofsted so they are able to access these funding streams.
The top reasons for parents choosing a HAF scheme for their child were ‘enjoyment’ and ‘new activities’.
Meanwhile, parents told us that the main way that they found out about HAF was through their school, followed by word of mouth and social media. Thank you to our schools in Devon who are integral to getting the information out to the right families and agreeing to our providers operating on the school premises.
Feedback from parents
- The HAF scheme allows my children to attend clubs that usually we wouldn’t be able to afford.
- It made my son happy he tried new things made friends he enjoyed himself which makes me happy.
- It gives me a break as I am a full-time carer to their dad and its helped with food costs and given them more time to be kids outside.
- Made my life better as my son was coming home happy with a huge smile instead of angry.
- It is a joy to watch my son be happy making new friends and being able to join in the HAF activities.
Food element
In Devon, we insisted all children attending HAF get a hot, nutritious meal in keeping with the school food standards. This is a challenge for some providers due to the use of premises. However, this is a popular part of the scheme, with parents telling us it takes the pressure off them financially and that knowing their child has had a hot meal during the day has helped to reduce their stress.
“My daughter has eaten curry and cottage pie. How did you do that? She is now asking for this at home”.
Feedback from a parent
“Can we have a menu so I can choose what I would like?
Feedback from a child
Some have asked for bigger sized meals.
Quality visits
Our Early Years and Childcare team visited 25 HAF schemes and found the following:
What went well?
- Parents booked on and some schemes were fully booked
- Good understanding of Safeguarding procedures from Staff
- Children felt safe and praised the coaches & staff members
We asked a child at one of the schemes what he does when he is not here:
“Out fighting people my age and getting arrested, it’s a good thing, I’m here”
Have you tried any new foods?
“I hadnt tried tomatoes before, I am still not sure about them.” “I tried hummus, guacamole and pomegranate.”
What was your best thing?
- “Mountain biking on Haldon. I overtook everyone.”
- “The mountain biking, I did it twice. I fell asleep at 5.30pm and didn’t wake up until 3.30am”
We asked a child at one of the schemes what she does when she is not at the farm, to which she replied “I am dreaming of when I come back again”. Another child said that if he was at home he stays in bed playing on his phone, while others told us that they watch Netflix or are gaming for most of the day.
What could have gone better, or what could be changed next time?
- The non-attendance – policy introduced
- Writing to parents to show the impact of non attendance at sessions.
- Improve setting signing in and out procedures, perhaps make this alphabetical
Annex A – feedback from parents
Swimming was a huge positive compared to previous programmes, my children love swimming, but we do not get to go often as a family. My children had a fantastic time and wouldn’t stop taking about their days with pop-up
My sons severely autistic with extreme behaviour and they managed his needs well and tailored his activities to what his interests are.
My daughter had the best time. She loved the activities and loved being outside.
Absolutely brilliant! The children look forward to every HAF club and they’ve had a great time. The activities over Easter were wonderful
Overall we were extremely impressed what the scheme on offer and the staff that ran the scheme were helpful and supportive towards M. Will be booking M into the scheme during the Summer at The Beacon
Annex B – feedback from children and young people
Two children spoke about enjoying the cooking activities – one spoke about enjoying making the pizza and putting the toppings on (they had made a design on the top of the pizza), another spoke about cutting up apples for the first time. one child spoke about enjoying playing with the younger children in the garden.
How are you enjoying it so far? ‘I like the games, its fun’ ‘I like seeing my friends here, I know them, we’re in the same school’, that’s good and I bet you have made some new friends? couple of the children nodded ‘yes’
When asked one child said ‘definitely the football’ , she spoke about how she loves football and so enjoyed playing a match yesterday, The other said that she liked playing the ‘stop the bus’ game, but also enjoyed playing penalties.
V from Ukraine 12, goes to Cullompton CC. Karting was the most fun, came 2nd, it was his first time karting, he has done boxing before, food is different, looking forward to today.
Asking a child what they liked about coming, ‘ I like sports, you can get to play with anything!’ Another child informed me ‘we’ve got lasagne today, I don’t really like it, but I’ll eat it’
what do you like doing here,? ‘Everything!’ Just chatting generally to a child, they told me, ‘we have a wizard coming tomorrow and we can do the tricks!’