Agenda item

Marcus Robinson (Strategic Commissioner, Children’s Services) briefed the Committee on the report, including an overview of the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme, its link to wider strategies, Summer in the City 2024 and the co-produced themes for the Summer in the City 2025.

Natalie Glasby (Head of Programmes, LMP Action CIC) remarked that the LMP Action CIC had been working with the Council in rolling out the HAF programme for the past four years which now became a brand in the borough. She highlighted the following:

• The themes for Summer in the City 2025 were co-produced with the Youth Council and Youth Board, i.e. exploring our environment, levelling up, building connections, celebrating creativity, and belonging everywhere.
• There would be 27 providers this year offering programmes for different age groups to be held in locations spanning across the borough, including the three Family Hubs. 
• All providers were able to offer spaces to children and young people with SEND, with specialist providers organising events particularly for them.
• It was a requirement for providers to add their accessibility arrangements and SEND support on Plinth which was a new booking system allowing parents to filter appropriate provisions.
• Community Day to launch Summer in the City 2025 would be held on 19 July and all were welcome.

Councillor Mercy Umeh appreciated the Council’s efforts in organising activities and events for the children and their families during summer holidays, which was not available in the past. 

Councillor Aliya Afzal-Khan expressed appreciation that the events would span across the north, centre and south of the borough.  Addressing her question on the theme of levelling up, Natalie Glasby noted that as suggested by the Youth Board, levelling up events would enable young people accessing new opportunities and engaging themselves in new and different things.

On Councillor Afzal-Khan’s further question about marketing among parents of local maintained schools, Natalie Glasby said that all the details were forwarded to parents of all schools in school zone around mid-June for their booking of activities/events commencing mid-July.

Nandini Ganesh (Co-optee) recalled that before deploying Plinth, Parentsactive had made past contributions of producing a booklet listing all the Summer in the City activities to make the events more accessible. In this regard, Natalie Glasby advised that a small number of physical booklets of activities/events were printed now for events and some premises like the Children’s centres. Moreover, while residents were encouraged to use the Plinth, they could still make bookings by contacting the providers directly.  On Nandini’s further questions about the age range of activities, Marcus Robinson noted that the age ranges each provider could accommodate were clearly indicated in Plinth, with specialist providers accommodating young people up to 25 years old.

Sharing members’ sentiments about the amazing programme, Nadia Taylor (Co-optee) asked to what extent the activities were shaped and co-produced. Natalie Glasby noted that co-production happened more proactively starting from last year when they had joined the meetings of the Youth Council and Youth Board to appreciate the areas of wanting in the borough. 

As regards Nadia Taylor’s concern about funding, Marcus Robinson responded that Summer in the City programme was predominately funded through the Department for Education with some additional funding from the Council and various grant schemes.  Nadia considered it necessary to secure more funding support from different sources having regard to the ever-growing richness and popularity of activities and events on offer.

Questions from the floor

Noting that there would be 27 providers offering different programmes for the Summer in the City 2025, Marie Thomas (Resident) said as a member of a tenant’s association, she had not come across any related information.  Moreover, as she noticed, the Family Hubs were still unknown to many residents, especially those who did not live near the hubs.

Marcus Robinson highlighted the diverse marketing means, including promotions on the Council’s magazine being delivered to every household, the vinyl banners at the parks and the front page of the website.  In addition to marketing among school parents, they had also worked proactively with the 27 providers which were very well connected with local communities/residents who might not visit the Council’s website regularly. While improvements had been made to marketing the programme over the years, Marcus welcomed new marketing ideas especially those enabling a more diversified reach to low-income families.

Councillor Alex Sanderson (Deputy Leader) remarked that H&F probably had the best offer across the country in terms of HAF programme which was accessible to all children and young people in the borough, rather than just those who were eligible for free school meals as in the case of some neighbouring boroughs. The Council, along with getting some grant funding, had also put a lot of resources and regarded this a significant piece of investment with a view to transforming the borough’s children and young people during summer. This was particularly helpful to families struggling with the cost of living.  Councillor Sanderson added that all information pertaining to Summer in the City programme was available on the Council’s website and available in 128 different languages.

Benito Brown (Resident) called for more marketing at schools to promote the HAF programme in April/May among parents so that more new faces could be seen joining the activities.

Councillor Sanderson remarked that although the HAF programme in the borough was open to all, it was primarily targeted at 6000+ students on free school meals, and they would probably be seen age through the system.  And it was good to see students who had enjoyed the activities were returning year-on-year. She emphasised that the HAF programme had been very widely promulgated with marketing growing every year to ensure the information had reached as many people as possible.

Summing up, the Chair thanked everyone and said she would be joining the Community Day on 19 July 2025.

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report.