funding

This page explains how Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) funding works in relation to Fit for All providers. The latest maximum rates are listed. The limits on the maximum delivery per participant are explained. There are some examples of HAT funding calculations.

Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) funding can be used to pay towards the costs of sessions during the school holidays that provide physical activity and healthy food for children and young people (aged 5-16 years) who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and who either live in Birmingham or go to school in Birmingham. Up to 15% of the total funding in Birmingham is used to support similar sessions involving children and young people who are in need for other reasons and who may or may not be eligible for FSM. Fit for All is a programme which provides inclusive sessions for disabled, vulnerable and other children in Birmingham. The HAF funding for Fit for All projects is worked out by Bring it on Brum who coordinate HAF funding in Birmingham. They base funding for Fit for All projects on an hourly rate per child (which varies according to need) and an allowance for food:

Fit for All HAF rates in 2023	amount
hourly rate for child/young person with SEND	£7.00
hourly rate for vulnerable child/young person who does not have SEND	£5.00
hourly rate for child/young person who is eligible for Free School Meals	£3.50
food allowance per child/young person per day	£5.00

HAF funding aims to benefit Free School Meal children who are aged between 5 and 16 years inclusive. Young people with SEND can, however, be included in funded sessions between the ages of 5 and 18 years inclusive.

1. Example of a HAF funding calculation

A 4hr session offering places for 10 young people of whom 5 have SEND, 3 are vulnerable (including because they are siblings) and 2 are neither SEND nor vulnerable but are eligible for Free School Meals could be HAF funded at most:

to a total of £278 made up of £228 towards the cost of the session and £50 for food.

Note: that most of the SEND and Vulnerable Young People may also be eligible for Free School Meals. Whilst it is important to record this (see bookings and registers), that doesn’t affect the maximum funding for the session.

Limits on funding per child

There are limits on the number of HAF-funded hours that any child or young person can take part in each day and across the whole of a school holiday period. These are:

maximum number of hours per day for each child	4 hours
maximum number of hours during Easter, or Winter school holidays	16 hours
maximum number of hours during the Summer school holidays	64 hours

The assumption in the way HAF is managed is that sessions will be 4 hours long. If all HAF funded sessions lasted 4 hours, then the hourly limits above would translate into daily limits (1 session per day; 4 sessions during Easter or Winter holidays; and 16 sessions during Summer holidays. However, SEND and vulnerable children and young people in particular are likley to benefit from sessions that are shorted than 4 hours long. Very young children may only manage sessions that are 90 minutes long. So, although the limits are frequently quoted in terms of days, you need to look at the total hours that are being provided to see when the maximum is reached.

2. Another example of a HAF funding calculation

Over the Easter holidays, a group might organise a project providing 5 sessions, each lasting 3 hours, with 10 participants (5 SEND, 3 vulnerable and 2 FSM eligible, as above). The maximum HAF funding in this case will be:

That is 15 hours x £57/hour + £250 for food = £1105.

Note: the project above is within the maximum hour allowances because the participants only have 3 hours provision per day (as against a maximum of 4 hours) and the total over the Easter holiday is 15 hours per child (as against a maximum of 16 hours).

Cohorts and Open Access

The limits on HAF-funded provision are per child, not per group. There is sometimes an assumption in HAF funding guidance that all participants attend all the sessions organised by a group and – in this way – the maximum number of hours that can be funded per child becomes the maximum number of hours for which a group can be funded. In fact, most groups that deliver Fit for All do things differently in one of two ways that mean they can be funded to deliver longer than the per child limits shown above:

• some groups offer a large number of sessions on the basis of open access – participants decide which sessions they attend – up to the maximum allowed per child
• many groups offer a large number of sessions on thee basis of cohorts – participants are grouped together so that, for example, primary age attend in a morning session each day and secondary age children attend afternoon sessions on the same days.

In both cases, groups can deliver more hours than any individual child would be eligible to attend.

3. Third example of a HAF Funding Calculation

In the Summer holidays, a Fit for All provider could run 28 sessions x 4 hr sessions with spaces for 10 children and young people (5 SEND, 3 vulnerable and 2 FSM as above) at each. That is a total of 112 hours provision (which is more than the limit of 64 hours HAF-fundable provision per participant over the Summer period). However, the group aims to involve a total of 40 young participants in these 28 sessions. That means each participant atteends, on average, for just (112 hours provision multiplied by 10 children at each session divided by 40 children =) 28 hours each. As long as no participant attends for more than 64 hours, then the maximum HAF funding for this project is:

In this example, the group provides more than 64 hours over the Summer, but no participant attends for more than 64 hours. That means the group can reclaim the full amount: ten times the £278 given in example one above.

Further Information

Here is a map that shows an approximation of postcodes in Birmingham

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