Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) partner standards

If you are delivering activities through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, you’ll need to follow the standards below.

These help us make sure every HAF session is safe, fun, inclusive, and a positive experience for children and young people. Parents may also find this information helpful in understanding what they can expect from a HAF provider.

Enrichment activities

All HAF activities must provide fun and enriching activities that allow children to:

• develop new skills or knowledge
• build on what they already know
• try out new experiences
• have fun and spend time with others.

Examples of these activities are:

• physical activities - football, swimming, table tennis or cricket (holiday clubs must provide activities which meet the Physical Activity Guidelines shown on GOV.UK)
• creative activities - putting on a play, junk modelling or drumming workshops
• experiences - a nature walk or visiting a city farm
• free play - fun and freedom to relax and enjoy themselves.

You are expected to provide a balanced programme. For those whose primary focus is set around a specific activity or sport, we expect you to make sure children attending their activity will benefit from a holistic and varied experience.

Environment and sustainability

We encourage providers to consider small changes that support sustainability, such as:

• reducing single‑use plastics
• sourcing food locally
• using leftover food
• growing produce for meals
• supporting uniform swap schemes
• having recycling and composting options.

Food

For many children, enjoying a nutritious meal is an important part of their HAF experience.

You should:

• offer a hot meal (where possible)
• provide at least one meal a day
• make sure all meals and snacks meet school food standards from GOV.UK
• consider allergies, dietary needs and food regulations from the Food Standards Agency.

Where applicable, you should be registered as a food business. This provides reassurance that food safety standards are being met. If you are not registered, visit GOV.UK to register your business.

Healthy living

You should support children’s understanding of healthy lifestyles in positive, everyday ways through:

• cooking
• tasting sessions
• food chats at mealtimes
• growing produce
• including nutrition in activities.

Sessions can also include age‑appropriate discussions around wellbeing, safety and economic issues that affect young people such as:

• vapes
• cigarettes
• drugs.

We expect providers to incorporate helping children to understand more about the benefits of healthy eating and nutrition. These do not need to be formal learning activities. This could include:

• getting children involved in food preparation and cooking
• growing fruit and vegetables
• taste tests
• discussing food and healthy eating during mealtimes
• including food and nutrition in other activities.

Through positive and supportive activities, children can explore what healthy choices look like. This can include simple discussions about vaping, smoking or drugs, helping them understand how these can affect their health, safety and wellbeing.

Policies and procedures

Partners must have up‑to‑date and robust policies covering:

• safeguarding, including recruitment of staff and volunteers
• food safety
• health and safety
• insurance, for example Employers Liability Insurance and Public Liability Insurance
• accessibility and inclusion
• Ofsted registration.

You must be compliant with the Ofsted requirements for working with children. If you are a holiday club, you may:

• need to legally register with Ofsted depending on the provision you offer
• be eligible to register with Ofsted on the voluntary register
• be exempt from registration entirely.

Check if you need to register with Ofsted on GOV.UK.

Clubs and providers can take part in the HAF programme whether they require registration with Ofsted or not. To support the raising of quality and to better meet the safeguarding needs of children and young people, they can choose to register with Ofsted even if they do not have to.

Safeguarding

Keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility. We expect every you to:

• have a trained Designated Safeguarding Lead, who has a working knowledge of Kent procedures
• make sure all staff understand safeguarding processes
• collect key important information about each child (including emergency contacts and school name).

This helps families feel confident, and ensures children are well supported during their time at HAF.

Special educational needs and disabled (SEND) children and young people

You must make your activities accessible to a wide range of children by following the Equality Act 2010 and make any reasonable adjustments.

With parental agreement, you may contact the child’s SENCO to help plan support. Using the All About Me form can help create a fuller picture of the child’s needs and strengths.

Helpful resources

We encourage partners to use the Childworks training and resources that support inclusive practice, including interactive toolkits and bite‑sized videos focused on SEND inclusion.

For more information about the benefits of the HAF programme, visit the Education Hub webpage on GOV.UK.