National support service for local authorities to deliver the 2021 Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme

Concepts

• national support service for local authorities
• holiday activities and food
• education administration
• local authorities
• national support service
• holiday activities
• peer support
• school holidays
• food programme
• local bodies

Location

Description

The government is committed to creating more high quality, affordable and flexible childcare, including before and after school and during the school holidays. Our Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) will provide free childcare, structured activities and food for those on free school meals (FSM), during the Easter, Christmas and summer holidays. The Department is running a procurement for support, advisory and performance monitoring services to assist local authorities with ensuring holiday provision for school-age children across England. This will include (but is not limited to) - 1. Supporting local authorities with the tools and practical guidance on rapidly mapping the current sufficiency of school-age childcare within their region. 2. Providing practical planning and delivery advice to support local authorities in increasing the sufficiency of school-age childcare in their region. This may include identifying potential gaps in provision, supporting the creation of new childcare places, enhancing existing offers and making best use of partnership arrangements with local bodies, schools and other relevant organisations. 3. Regular reporting to DfE against the contract and progress in local authorities. 4. Helping local authorities to create and implement a local communication plan to target parents and hardest to reach communities. 5. Setting up a system of peer-to-peer support amongst local authorities.

CPV Codes

• 75121000 - Administrative educational services

Indicators

• Contract is suitable for SMEs.
• Contract is suitable for VCOs.

Other Information

In the 2018 Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents, parents report that the most helpful changes to local childcare provision to make it better suited to their needs would be affordable childcare (26%) and more childcare available during the school holidays (19%) - with summer holidays reported as the main time of year that improvements could be made. The same survey also found that 15% of parents thought childcare which operated for longer hours would make provision better suited to their needs; with almost a fifth of parents (18%) wanting to use more after school club provision. This open tender competition is being run via the DfE's e-procurement portal, Jaggaer. Links to the site and related guidance can be found via the link above. The deadline for bids is 12noon on Monday 8th February 2021. Jaggaer Link https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/procu...