Holiday activities and food programme 2021
In November 2020, the Government announced that the holiday activities and food programme would be expanded across the whole of England in 2021.
The programme has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018, but has not run in Bolton previously.
The programme will cover the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays in 2021 to offer local free holiday provision, including healthy food and enriching activities. As was the case in previous years, the focus of the programme will be on children of statutory school age eligible for benefits-related free school meals.
Further DfE guidance can be found here.
Plans for Easter have been significantly affected by a limited time to plan and the emergence of the Government’s road map for the COVID-19 recovery. Bolton has proposed a blended approach, with the provision of vouchers to support all free school meal eligible families using the COVID-19 Winter Support Grant funding, as well as a very limited in-person programme. This approach has been approved by the DfE and it is proposed build on this model for summer and beyond.
The programme is currently being worked through to prepare for the Summer and we will be in touch after the Easter Holidays with further information and briefing sessions for potential partners. Any questions please send to Startwellbooking@bolton.gov.uk.