Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Holiday Activities and Food Programme

Monday 23 November 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Department wrote to all local authorities with guidance on expanding the holiday activities and food programme.
  • The programme aims to provide free healthy meals and enriching activities for children throughout England.
  • Local partnerships and organizations played a key role in delivering the programme successfully in Ipswich.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Tom Hunt
Children & Families
Context

The MP is concerned about the timely implementation of the holiday activities and food programme for children across England.

Question

What steps his Department is taking to ensure the timely implementation of the expansion of the holiday activities and food programme throughout the regions of England. We have already written to all local authorities with guidance, will work closely with them including sharing best practice from pilot programmes, and are appointing a national organisation from spring next year to support local delivery.

Answer from Vicky Ford

Rolling out the excellent holiday activity and food programme for children across the country will mean that even more children will benefit from free healthy meals and enriching holiday activities. We have already written to all local authorities with guidance, we will work closely with them including sharing best practice from our pilot programmes, and we are appointing a national organisation from spring next year to support local delivery.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Specific timeline for full implementation not provided.

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Q2 Tom Hunt
Education Children & Families
Context

Ipswich was one of the pilot locations for the holiday activity and food programme, which operated successfully during summer. The MP wants to ensure continuation of this project.

Question

Ipswich was lucky enough to be one of those pilots and, this summer, it actually had the holiday activity and food programme in operation. It was great to go there to meet not only the children who benefited from it, but the different organisations and the young adults from Ipswich who were able to play a part in delivering that service. Can the Minister outline what plans are in place, looking ahead to the Easter and summer holidays, to make sure that this continues to happen and that the community is completely aware of how it can get involved in this fantastic project?

Answer from Vicky Ford

It was a huge pleasure to visit the Government's holiday activity and food programme with my hon. Friend in Ipswich this summer. We saw at first hand how local partnerships helped to deliver these excellent schemes, so we want to encourage schools, childcare providers, food suppliers, voluntary organisations, sports experts, and arts experts all to come together in partnership. Interested parties should contact their local authorities and together we will all make sure that next year's holidays are full of food and fun.

Not addressed: No concrete plans for continuation or community awareness were provided.

How: Changing Subject To General Encouragement

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