Fit for All receives funding from the Government’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Fund. In Birmingham, this funding is managed on behalf of the City Council as a programme called Bring It On Brum (BIOB). Bring It On Brum is run by StreetGames UK, which is a nationally active charity based in Manchester. The HAF fund is aimed at providing school holiday-time opportunities for physical exercise and healthy food for children and young people (5-16 years) who are eligible for means-tested Free School Meals (FSM). (Means-tested FSM means being entitled to Free School Meals because your family receives a qualifying benefit based on household income, like Universal Credit). The Government says, however, that up to 15% of the funds available can be used at the discretion of local councils to provide similar opportunities for other vulnerable children and young people who may not be eligible for Free School Meals..
Fit for All started off as a Children’s Quarter campaign for inclusive holiday clubs. Children’s Quarter and its member groups, schools and organisations had been involved in previous Government-funded schemes for holiday clubs. The hourly funding rate in these schemes made no allowance for the fact that clubs that are open to all children, including disabled and vulnerable children, generally need much higher staff ratios. This meant:
- there were not many opportunities for SEND children
- the inclusive opportunities there were depended on providers being able to raise most of the money themselves
- SEND children, young people and their families – often the most isolated and financially hard-pressed – found it hardest to get the physical activity and healthy food they needed.
Children’s Quarter campaigned for disabled and vulnerable children to have access to opportunities and for more realistic funding rates. In Birmingham, BIOB and the City Council responded by using most of the 15% discretionary allowance to fund opportunities for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). Children’s Quarter, and its member groups, schools and organisations, put together a city-wide Fit for All programme of inclusive holiday camps that welcome and include:
- disabled children and young people
- children and and young people who are vulnerable or who have other additional needs
- children and young people who are eligible for Free School Meals because of low household income.
Fit for All makes sure, as far as possible, that each district in Birmingham has at least one inclusive holiday club. We know that isn’t enough and that many more young people and their families want inclusive clubs at Easter, Summer and Christmas. Children’s Quarter is continuing to look for funding to try to enable more provision. This is particularly needed because the Government’s ‘Free Childcare’ offer – as it stands – doesn’t allow sufficient funding to pay for term-time childcare for children who are disabled or who have additional needs.