The HAF-DEFINE Project: Holiday Activities & Food Programme – Developing a Best Practice Framework for Implementation and Evaluation
Research Team: Russ Jago, Lorna Hatch, Miranda Pallan, Marie Murphy, Laura Mazzoli Smith, Carolyn Summerbell, Cecilia Khofi-Szeremley, Rona Campbell, Greta Defeyter, Nadia Siddiqui, Irina Pokhilenko, Jo Williams, Mary Robson, Florence Darling
Who's involved: University of Bristol, PHRESH, Fuse
September 2023 – February 2025
Background
In England, 2.9 million children live in families of relative low income. School holidays can be a difficult time for these families as they struggle to afford to buy food and pay for enrichment activities that their child would normally receive (free) when at school. Food insecurity and a lack of engagement in enrichment activities can negatively affect children’s mental and physical health and their school learning. Indeed, the gap in educational performance between low income and wealthier children increases the most during school holidays.
To support families during school holidays, the government started the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme in 2018. This provides free holiday clubs offering healthy meals and activities to children eligible for free school meals. In 2021, this was rolled out across all areas of England and extended beyond summer to include the spring and winter holidays.
To date, some evaluations of the programme have taken place suggesting children who attend get some benefit such as doing more physical activity. They have also highlighted where improvements could be made, for example by reaching more eligible families and children.
Aim
This project aims to better understand the ways the programme is being interpreted and implemented and how this affects its reach and success. We will evaluate the programme using a range of methods not previously used to help drill down into the detail at a local level. For example, by looking at why eligible children do not attend and what types of delivery of the programme have the best impact for children’s diet, physical activity and educational outcomes.
This information will be used to develop a best practice framework for local authorities and local providers who run the HAF programmes on the ground. The framework will be developed in partnership with them to ensure examples are workable at a local level and fit for purpose to access and attract those most in need.
Design and methods
In the first phase of this research, we will build an understanding of HAF programme processes and provision across England and how this differs across local authorities. Participants such as HAF programme coordinators, providers and users with different experiences of the programme will be recruited from across three areas.
The second phase will explore reasons why people don’t engage with the programme using creative methods and counter-mapping techniques. Participants will be recruited who are eligible but do not attend.
The third phase will focus on coproduction of best practice guidance via workshops supported by creative facilitation.
Public involvement
Throughout the project, we will be capturing the experiences of the public and people involved in HAF programmes. We will engage with parents/carers and children across the research sites who will advise on the project at key points in its delivery.
Dissemination
The dissemination outputs from this project will be guided by the views of participants such as parents on the key messages and the best formats and channels to engage and reach the target public audience.
In the news
New freely available resources launched to deliver good school holiday provision
At the NIHR SPHR ASM 2024, Lorna Hatch was the winner of the Equality Diversity and Inclusion award for her work as part of this project making sure that the voices of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents/carers are included in the research.
