Get free childcare this Christmas - see if you're eligible

The Christmas school holidays can be a real juggle with last minute gift shopping, planning Christmas dinner, and kids at home raiding the cupboards. It’s enough to drive you up the wall. But there’s support available out there.

Since 2020, the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme has been helping families across England with free meals, fun activities and childcare during the big breaks. A Local Government (LGA) report shows kids who participate in the HAF programme benefit from improved health, wellbeing, and learning.

Sounds good, right? But a new report says lots of kids out there aren’t making use of it, partly because not all families know it exists.

So what exactly is the Holiday Activities and Food programme?

It’s a government scheme for primary school kids. While it’s mostly for families on low income or on benefits, local councils can choose to offer spots to other kids at their discretion. The programme gives your kids:

• A hot, healthy meal every day; some places throw in breakfast and tea too
• Fun activities like sports, crafts, cooking, even coding

Plus, you get free childcare so you can actually get stuff done.

It runs at Easter, summer, and Christmas. Councils aim to offer about six weeks of face-to-face activities across the year for primary school kids.

Since 2022, HAF has delivered more than 15 million activity days. Last year alone, nearly 5 million days of fun and food were provided. That’s a lot of happy tummies.

Who can go?

If your child gets benefits-related free school meals, your family’s likely eligible. But councils can also use up to 15% for families who don’t qualify but could do with the help.

How do I apply?

If your child is on free school meals, you might not even have to apply. Your school or local council will likely send you details so you can book free activities automatically.

But, if you think your kid might be eligible and you haven’t heard about HAF in your area, it’s worth contacting your school to see if they can help. Lots of schools can refer kids who might benefit even if they’re not on free school meals.

Failing that, look up your local council contact details and get in touch with them directly. You might need to do a little sleuthing to work out what the HAF programme is called in your area and how it works, as each local council works slightly differently.

This can be as simple as typing in “HAF” in the search box of the local council site and taking a look at the results that come up. Failing that, you might just need to call your local council and ask them how the programme works in your area to see if you can self-refer.