Annual report 2025 to 2026
1. Introduction
This report provides details of the East Sussex Holiday Food and Fun programme during the 2025 to 2026 financial year. The programme is part of the UK Government’s national Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. This provides support to school-aged children from low-income families during school holiday periods. It aims to help eligible children be more active, avoid social isolation, improve wellbeing and eat more healthily.
In 2025 we continued with the model of using local providers to deliver our programme. These can be responsive to local needs and secure engagement from their community. Our 95 partner organisations, listed in Appendix 1, have worked hard to deliver a rich mix of activities.
HAF grant assessment panel
This consists of staff from East Sussex County Council (ESCC) teams as well as external members including those listed below.
ESCC Teams represented:
· Early Years
· Early Help
· Joint Commissioning
· Funding and Partnerships
· Data Management
· Alternative Provision
· External Funding
· Marketing and communications
External organisations represented:
· Active Sussex
2. Overview and key data
The programme continues to support children who receive benefits-related free school meals. East Sussex County Council also provides places for children in other identified groups, including:
· Children referred by a professional working with the family
· Those with special educational needs or disabilities
· Children in Need (CiN)
· Referrals to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
· Young Carers
· Children on a Child Protection Plan (CP)
· Children we care for (Looked after)
· Ukrainian guests
The provision was mapped to help ensure we had provision available across the county with a focus on our known areas of higher deprivation.
2.1 Spending breakdown
East Sussex County Council was awarded £1,655,270 by the Department of Education to deliver the HAF programme in 2025.
Annual summary
Totals for the 2025 to 2026 financial year:
- Sessions funded: 35,563
- Sessions attended: 29,928 (84%)
- Number of providers: 95
- Specialist SEND providers: 18
- Activity costs: £1,474,211
- Programme coordination: £165,527
2.2 Delivery summary
| Easter | Summer | Winter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions funded | 8,254 | 22,419 | 4,890 |
| Sessions attended | 7,364 | 18,646 | 3,918 |
| Individual young people | 2,453 | 3,992 | 1,781 |
| Providers | 89 | 90 | 57 |
| SEND providers | 13 | 16 | 6 |
| Locations | 106 | 132 | 79 |
| Activity expenditure | £350,821 | £919,332 | £204,058 |
2.3 Number of children participating
The total number of unique children that attended at least once for each holiday period is outlined below.
Easter 2025
- 1,433 primary-aged
- 1020 secondary-aged
- Total = 2,435
Summer 2025
- 2,558 primary-aged
- 1,434 secondary-aged
- Total = 3,992
Winter 2025
- 1,042 primary-aged
- 739 secondary-aged
- Total = 1,781
3. Voices of Young people and families
A key feature of our programme is ensuring the voice of children, young people and their families are captured through various evaluation processes. Online parent/carer and young people evaluation surveys are distributed at the end of every holiday period. The feedback collected informs future delivery.
The positive impact on families was clear from the feedback received. Examples of this are below.
So grateful my daughter could attend. She came out so happy and has honestly been really laughing in life more since her creative day
Parent - Culture Shift
All the staff are so helpful and patient! They made us feel very welcome, we definitely would like to come back every year. Kids had so much fun!
Parent - Active Hastings
Most parents felt that their child’s wellbeing had improved because of attending a HAF club. 85% of respondents indicated 4 or 5 stars to this statement.
We had positive feedback from parents of children with SEND. It was reassuring that 95% of parents felt their child’s needs were effectively supported by HAF providers.
Defiant Sports has been great for my son, who is autistic. I was allowed to attend to supervise him and there were a variety of interesting activities on offer to meet his special needs. They were really accommodating and inclusive, so I would highly recommend this holiday club for children with different needs.
Defiant Sports
I cannot emphasise enough how amazing for my autistic child this club was. He tried all seafoods and new foods which is unbelievable they were amazing’
Fresh Visions
The activities on offer are well received by families.
- 95% of parents felt that there was a good range of activities on offer through the HAF programme.
- 95% of attendees said they enjoyed going to a HAF club and would like to attend again.
- 96% said they felt safe at the club.
We also had positive feedback from parents wanting to find childcare over the holidays.
A brilliant club that both of my children enjoy and look forward to attending. Being able to obtain a HAF funded place means they are able to go to holiday clubs when childcare is an issue.
Active Education Sussex
4. Food
Food is an important element of the Holiday food and fun! offer. All clubs are required to include a nutritionally balanced meal to all attendees. Some providers choose to prepare their own food whilst others use external caterers who are familiar with school food standards.
Approximately 24% of our clubs have the facilities to prepare and cook meals on the premises. These are amongst the clubs with the highest quality of food provision, as children witness the meals being freshly cooked. This opens discussions about nutrition. Many of these clubs also involve attendees in the planning and preparation of food which helps to minimise waste.
Children are encouraged to try new foods; with allergies, dietary and cultural requirements all catered for.
Brilliant recipes and activities. My son enjoyed lots of food he never would otherwise have even tried.
All Abroad! Bus
I cannot emphasise enough how amazing for my autistic child this club was. He tried all seafoods and new foods which is unbelievable, they were amazing.
Fresh Visions
Analysis of the summer feedback showed that most children enjoyed the food served at the club they attended.
5. Enriching activities
Eligible children and young people had a huge range of activities to choose from. They had the opportunity to continue developing skills they had already learnt or to learn something new. Activities on offer included theatre, singing, craft, cooking, sewing, animation, bushcraft, painting, sculpture and lots more.
The impact was clear from the feedback received. Many children and families reported having fun, socialising, and making new friends.
Enriching activities included:
6. Physical activities
The East Sussex HAF programme delivered an exciting range of activities to suit all interests, experience and physical ability. We always aim to ensure that children can participate in something active that they enjoy.
Physical activities included:
7. Special education needs and disabilities (SEND)
Supporting provision for children with SEND
In collaboration with our Wraparound Childcare team, HAF providers were offered free training sessions in the following areas:
· De-escalation – introduction and basic strategies
· De-escalation – further strategies
· Neurodiversity – introduction
· Neurodiversity – further strategies
This increased the confidence of providers to further support a range of needs.
As well as funding 17 specialist SEND providers to deliver HAF places, additional funds were allocated to mainstream providers to meet individual SEND needs (i.e. to fund 1-1 support and extra staff as needed).
Additional SEND support allocated for HAF provision in 2025:
Easter - £1,825 (approximately 21 staff days) supported 8 children with SEND at 6 different clubs.
Summer - £9,212 (108 staff days) supported at least 25 children with complex SEND at 14 different clubs.
Winter - £1,010 (12 staff days) supported 5 children at 3 different clubs.
Towner Art Gallery has been great for my son, who is autistic. They supplied interesting activities, engaging him in his interests as well as encouraging him to explore other activities. Being able to leave children with special needs with staff able to cater for them offers a great opportunity for respite from caring roles.
Towner Eastbourne
8. Support for our partner organisations
The HAF team work with providers to ensure that all provision meets the expected standards. We have supported providers in finding suitable food partners, enhancing provision with food activities offered by Chartwells, and developing robust policies.
As well as offering SEND training to our partners as mentioned in section 7, we also offered Safeguarding and DSL training.
We work closely with our Childcare Support colleagues to assist our providers with any questions they may have about safeguarding issues.
9. Key challenges and learning
The programme continues to thrive. Feedback from participants and their families remains at the core of development for HAF in East Sussex.
We continue to enrol new providers into the programme to keep the offer fresh for families looking for new experiences. Our established providers also continue to develop their offer in response to the feedback we collect from families and share with providers.
10. Marketing and communication
Booking platform
We continued to use Eequ as the booking platform for our programme. Many eligible families are now familiar with this using this platform to find suitable provision. We shared the link to the East Sussex HAF booking page in a promotional email to previous bookers ahead of the booking launch for each holiday period. We also sent promotional emails to all East Sussex schools to share with eligible families.
Social media
Providers were encouraged to contact local schools and promote their provision on social media platforms. Templates and logos were given to providers to facilitate this.
Our Information for Families team regularly posted about available provision from the booking launch date onwards. Our booking platform, Eequ, enabled us to identify clubs which still had places available as the holiday period approached. Then we requested extra promotion for these clubs on our corporate social media platforms to maximise uptake.
Internal comms
We promoted the HAF offer via our internal communications to colleagues working directly with families. We encouraged keyworkers and social care colleagues to support eligible families to access the HAF offer.
10. Appendix 1 - Partner organisations
With thanks to:
Our activity and food providers
1066 Kids Club
A&I Media
Active Education
Active Hastings
Active Primary Sports
Active Stars
All Abroad Bus
Art House
Audio Active
Bourne Barbers
Bowles Rocks
Box HIIT
Bright Foundation
Brighton Watersports
Butterfly Nursery
C.A.T.S
CAYA (Come as you are)
Community Fishing 4 Fun
Create and Connect with Colour
Create Music
Culture Shift
Defiant Sports
East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service
East Sussex School of Circus Arts
Education Futures Trust
Educraft
EngagED Futures
ESCC - Buzz Active
ESCC - CICC
ESCC - Early Help
ESCC - Placement Support
Fame Academy - Eastbourne
Fame Academy - Hellingly
Fireflies
Fitness Rave
Freedom Leisure
Fresh Visions
Futsal Stars
Gizmo the DIY Theatre Company
Glottenham Farm
Glow Baby Play Centre
Glyne Gap
Groundwork South
Grovelands
H&R YMCA
Hastings Community Hive
Hastings Kombat Academy
Hastings Thrives
Havens Community Hub
Heart of Sidley
In2Play
Infinite Sport Ltd
Jewel Performing Arts
Jumping Beans
Jumping Juniors
Kaleidoscope
Little Gate Farm
Lymley Wood CIC
Make Good Trouble
Manor Twiglets Nursery
N.I.P.P.E.R.S
NatureBytes
Ordinary Climbers
Palma PT
Press Play Films with Eat Fresh Feel Good
Priory School
Project Rewild
Red Butler Music School
Resolute Martial Arts
Saxon Mount
SB Sports Coaching
SCDA
SCIP
Sensory Soft Play
Soul Voices
South East Stars Cheerleading
Space for Yew
Sport Welcome
Sportitude
SportsCool
St Leonards Juniors FC
Summer Adventure Camp
Sweet Circus
The Little Sewing School
Towner
Train the Way You Play
Tydol
Underwired
Universal Dance
Upgrade Training
Wave Active
Wild & Green
Wivelsfield holiday camp
Supporting organisations donating to HAF clubs
Hastings Literacy Trust
Morrisons
Sainsburys
Tesco
Waitrose