Filling the Holiday Gap report and

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Filling The Holiday Gap UPDATE REPORT 2015

Transcript of Filling the Holiday Gap report and

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Filling The Holiday GapUPDATE REPORT 2015

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BackgroundThe issue of non-term time hunger for children andyoung people on free school meals and those livingin poverty in the UK remains a concern for us all. Withthe end of year holidays and Christmas breaksapproaching fast the Holiday Hunger Task Grouprecognises the added pressures that these timesbring to families and children in need. We hope thatthis short update will help keep this issue in the publiceye. Prior to the introduction of Infant Free SchoolMeals in England and Scotland approximately 1.7million children were registered for free school meals.Holiday hunger as it is now known continues to lackpolicy, research and funding support fromgovernment. This update for the All PartyParliamentary Group on School Food outlines holidayprovision activity in the UK. It covers outcomes fromthe Filling the Gap National Conference in June of thisyear, latest research and reports on holiday hunger,testimonies from projects across the UK and makesfurther suggestions as to how central and devolvedgovernment could support future activities that wouldalleviate Holiday Hunger. On June 2nd 2015 the AllParty Parliamentary Group on School Food’s HolidayHunger Task Group in conjunction with SheffieldHallam University School of Business held the UK’sinaugural national conference into school holidayhunger.

As well as launching the ‘Filling the Holiday GapGuide’ (www.fillingtheholidaygap.co.uk) the eventaims were to:

•To raise awareness of non-term-time child hunger inthe UK.•Share practice in international innovation on holidaymeal and activity programmes.•Debate and agree solutions to progress with policymakers and potential project funders

The event, which was free to attend, attracted a widerange of delegates from across the UK. The 140delegates included public health specialists, schoolcatering providers, children’s charities, faith groups,youth organisations, foodbanks, academics, thecommercial sector, and funding bodies.

Video of main speakers and presentations can befound here (https://www.shu.ac.uk/sbs/news-events/news/main-speaker-presentations-filling-holiday-gap-conference-0 )

These included representatives from: • Child Poverty Action Group• United States Department of Agriculture• ‘Healthy Living’ at Northumbria University • Local Authority East Renfrewshire County

Council• Ashram Housing Associations Holiday Kitchen • MakeLunch

Workshop sessions led by APPG Holiday HungerTask Group members covered the following topics:linking to national policy / evaluating projects;enrichment activity; developing a programme in yourarea; valuing the views of service users.

Feedback from the day and a delegate surveyincluded the following suggestions for action in priorityorder:1. The setting up of a UK child hunger coalition2. Continue to lobby for change and support from

government on the issue 3. The development of a local authority resource

including a common evaluation framework4. Mapping of existing holiday provision projects

and programmes for signposting5. Research into the scale of the issue of child

hunger in the UK6. Share more examples of best and innovative

practice7. Consulting children and young people on their

views of holiday provision8. Development of a monitoring and quality

assurance process

The Holiday Hunger Task Group has committed tolook at these suggestions over the next twelvemonths and progress as resource and time allows inliaison with colleagues in all four UK regions. Initialfocus to be development of a Local Authority Guideand enhancing the current Filling The Holiday Gapwebsite.

Research and Reports Academic research shows that pupils experience aclear learning loss across the summer holidays andthis appears to be most significant in pupils from lowsocio economic status backgrounds (e.g. Paechter etal., 2015). In general, the reports and papers listedbelow demonstrate a clear need for holiday provisionboth in terms of food, activity and support. However,to date there is only one peer-reviewed paperpublished from data originating in the UK on theefficacy of summer holiday programmes. Hence,further research is required in order to effectivelymeasure the efficacy of holiday programmes on anumber of outcomes.

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Published Research and Reports

1) No Kid Hungry – Summer is tooexpensive to ignore report June 2015https://bestpractices.nokidhungry.org/sites/default/files/resources/NKH_MicroReport_02_SummerHunger_Final.pdf

2) “The Cost of School Holidays” (2015)produced by What Works Scotland andUniversity of Glasgow provides a literaturereview that examines evidence of theimpact of school holidays.

http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/The-cost-of-school-holidays.pdf

3) Kellogg’s produced a report titled,“Isolation and Hunger: The reality of theschool holidays for struggling families “Thisreport highlighted a number of key findings and casestudies. The figures for the survey data were providedby YouGov and the evaluation framework for 12 pilotclubs was provided by Northumbria University. http://pressoffice.kelloggs.co.uk/Going-hungry-so-their-children-can-eat-Third-of-parents-on-lower-incomes-have-skipped-meals-during-school-holidays

In addition to contributing to the Kellogg’s reportNorthumbria University published the findings in anacademic paper titled, “A Qualitative Evaluation ofHoliday Breakfast Clubs in the UK: Views of AdultAttendees, Children, and Staff”. This is the firstacademic paper published on this topic from datagathered in the UK.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534775/

4) Accord Group Programmes (Housing Social Care)Holiday Kitchen produced an online report titled, “Anevaluation of Holiday Kitchen 2014: Learning, foodand play for families who need it most in the WestMidlands” on 22 summer programmes deliveredacross Gt Manchester, W Midlands and Lincolnshirein collaboration with Birmingham City University.Further details about the scheme can be found in thefollowing section. Report for 2015; forthcoming:

http://accordgroup.org.uk/filemanager/resources/hk_bcu_report.pdf

Forthcoming Research and Reports

5) ‘Cost of the School Holidays for Low Incomefamilies’ Child Poverty Action Group Scotland.Research in the city of Glasgow due to be publishedNovember 2015. Survey and focus groups withparents, children and voluntary sector. (John Dickie,CPAG Scotland).

6) ‘School Holiday Food Provision’, GreenwichCooperative Development Agency. Needsassessment to tackle holiday hunger in the RoyalBorough of Greenwich to be published November2015 (Mel Taylor, GCDA).

7) Sheffield Filling the Holiday Gap project – Thisproject has been evaluated by Sheffield HallamUniversity; report forthcoming. Further details of thisproject are provided the following section. (Dr RachelRundle, Sheffield Hallam University)

8) The Summer Holiday Brakes (2015) project hasbeen evaluated by Northumbria University; reportforthcoming. Further details of this project areprovided in the following section.

9) Cardiff-Food and Fun (2015) project has beenevaluated by Northumbria University; reportforthcoming. Further details of this project areprovided in the following section.

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Holiday Provision ProjectsThe following testimonies from across the UK are asnapshot of different models of community actionsupporting children and families in need during the 2015summer holiday period. These organisations are just afraction of those involved in tackling the issue.

Cardiff – Food and Fun

Partnership working across Cardiff has resulted in asuccessful pilot to open five schools in deprived areasof the city during the summer holidays to providechildren with a safe, familiar environment in which to runaround, be creative, to learn and to share meals withtheir friends.

The Summer Holiday Enrichment Programme has beenled by City of Cardiff Council Education Catering andCardiff & Vale University Health Board (Public HealthTeam and Public Health Dieticians) under Food Cardiff.Partners in this joint initiative, which aims to enhancechildren’s quality of life, reduce health inequalities andreduce learning loss during the summer holiday period,also include Public Health Wales, Sport Cardiff, andSchools.

“Determined partnership working has resulted in deliveryof this programme in less than four months fromconception to more than 100 children and families. Thepartnership aims to create a replicable template toaddress the issue that for 170 non-school days in theyear, Free School Meal pupils cannot access theirentitlement to a school lunch”.

The summer pilot received visits from AssemblyMembers, Cabinet members and Welsh Governmentand was described by BBC Wales Today as “a lifelinefor parents”. (Katie Palmer, Food Cardiff)

Durham - Communities Together

During the summer holidays 17 churches from DurhamDiocese provided activities such as drama, crafts, sportsand cooking, often building on initiatives they have donein the past such as Messy Church of craft clubs. Over3000 children and adults were fed a variety of foodincluding picnics, BBQs and full two course homemademeals. Close working with local schools helped toensure those who may struggle were invited. ‘People inSulgrave have very little to do and little money to takechildren on days away. Some families came every dayand the children said it was the best week ever’ -Volunteer in Sulgrave. The feedback highlighted the newrelationships that were made and initiatives aredeveloping in light of these, including more provision inholidays. (Val Barron, Communities TogetherCoordinator)

Gateshead – Filling the Holiday Gap Project

In Gateshead there are already some great projectsthat try to fill the holiday gap. Our aim as Council wasto try to bring all those different organisations andprojects together for a celebration event while at thesame time building our own experience andvolunteering capacity for launching our own projectsnext year. Our event was not just about the foodprovided by Gateshead School Catering Service andits staff who volunteered but about providing freeaccess to leisure facilities and showcasing otherpartner organisations. These organisations included:Citizens Advice Bureau, Foodbank, Fairshare,Foodnation, Weight Watchers, Gateshead Learningand Skills, Library Service and Loan SharkAwareness. On the day we had over 260 parents andchildren for lunch and accessing swimming, archery,trampoline and soft play. A great success. (MichaelLamb, Gateshead Council)

Plymouth - The CATERed Big Summer FoodTour

Aim: “That a pilot is undertaken to assess the potentialtake-up, costs and benefits of providing a free dailymeal to disadvantaged pupils outside of term-time”.Every Tuesday and Thursday throughout August theCATERed team prepared and delivered 200 baggedmeals to children and young people at various play-parks and locations across the City. The locationswere chosen by reviewing data of benefit-based FreeSchool Meal eligibility within localities and then adding

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in levels of take-up for FSM and Universal FreeSchool Meals (i.e. where take-up was lowest) but alsotrying to ensure a city-wide reach. All food ingredientsand packaging was donated free of charge by oursuppliers. All labour was provided free of charge byCATERed staff. Number of children received foodacross the month was 1,210. Positive press coveragein The Herald, BBC Radio Devon Breakfast Show,ITV West country News. CATERed worked with RadioPlymouth to promote the event and upcominglocations and also provided free face painting forchildren.

“It is not possible to under-estimate the socio-economic benefits of well-nourished children andyoung people throughout school closure periods notonly for their health and well-being but also forengagement within their communities.” (Brad Pearce, Managing Director CATERed)

Magic Breakfast 365

Magic Breakfast 365 ran in four Magic Breakfastpartner schools over the summer holidays, reachingan average of 30 children in each school. Thechildren received a healthy breakfast and also joineda cookery club, where they learnt basic cookery skillsand made a healthy lunch to take home. The charityis in discussion with funders on how the model canbe delivered across the 460 Magic Breakfast partner

schools. This is planned as soon as funding becomesavailable. (Ellie Williams, Magic Breakfast 365coordinator)

London - FutureVersity

A small educational youth charity, based TowerHamlets since 1995, FutureVersity runs an annualprogramme of free, high quality courses and activitiesfor 11-25 year olds.

In summer 2015 FutureVersity ran its first everVacation Education programme, a 10 day multi-activity course for 75 young people aimed at tacklingeducational inequality by providing purposefulactivities for vulnerable young people in schoolholidays.

FutureVersity recognised that many young peoplewere coming to the courses hungry due to theabsence of free school meals during the holidays.Thus throughout the Vacation Education programmethere was an overall theme of supporting generalwellbeing by providing healthy breakfasts andlunches.

FutureVersity hopes that there will be increasedrecognition of the difficulties faced by low incomefamilies in school holidays in providing adequate foodand activities for children and increased support forthe charities trying to facilitate this. (Chantal Toby,Volunteer Manager)

Birmingham - Holiday Kitchen

Founded in 2013, Holiday Kitchen (HK) is based uponNew Economics Foundation Wellbeing principles,offering vulnerable families: learning, outdoor play,nutritious meals and food activities in DomesticViolence refuges, community and children’s centres.This summer HK delivered 4400 quality assuredactivity days with meals through 22 local partners, andhave more days plan for 2015. Ongoing programmedevelopment is being fostered through collaborationbetween social landlord Accord Group and the charityFamily Action.

HK has been welcomed by families: “It has helped myfamily cope over the holidays. We’ve made and eatennew things, having breakfast has helped our routine.The children can play with other kids, and we havesomething to look forward to! I’ve also not had towaste money” (Parent).

Working with and through Family Support Teams, HKactively complements government priorities ofsafeguarding, Early Help, Troubled Families, poverty,healthy start, nutrition, physical activity, financial

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inclusion, learning and achievement. Greatersystematic engagement from local authority officersworking in these areas would be welcomed. (Dr Caroline Wolhuter, Head of Social InclusionAshram Moseley Housing Association Accord Group)

Norwich – FISH

FISH – Food (and Fun) In School Holidays – is aproject within Norwich foodbank that was launchedin 2014 in response to increased family referralsduring the long school summer holidays. Workingclosely with local schools, children from low incomefamilies were invited to attend a local club and, oneyear on, 9 different areas around Norwich have runFISH seeing 281 different children and serving over2,300 meals (not counting seconds or puddings!).FISH also wanted to put on free, fun activities tocounter the potential for anti-social behaviour andbecause if food is scarce, it’s likely that days out /entertainment will be too. Staffed entirely byvolunteers and thanks to a grant from the NorfolkCommunity Foundation and donations from thepublic, businesses and supermarkets, a hot healthydinner was followed by some great activitiesincluding a visit from Banham Zoo, a CSIinvestigation and a beatbox workshop. DebbieBuxton (Parent and Support Advisor): ‘This club isthe most important facility that I have found tosupport our families consistently during our holidays.I can’t tell you how much the scheme means to me.’ (Hannah Worsley, Norwich foodbank ProjectManager)

Birkenhead – Feeding Birkenhead

‘It has been a godsend having somewhere like thisduring the holidays’, according to one mum whosechild was one of the 2,058 who accessed FeedingBirkenhead’s provision during the Summer Holiday.

Not only did the projects ensure hungry children werefed, and that they could access the same funactivities as their more fortunate peers, but theprojects were able to establish contact with theirfamilies to begin a programme of longer termsupport.

Eight voluntary groups laid on ‘food and fun’ projectswith free, universal access. The cost per child overthe Summer Holiday was £14.13. Food was sourcedvia a mixture of FareShare, supermarket donationsand the rescuing of surplus cereal from Kellogg’s.Each project intends to resume its provision in theOctober half-term.

A next step to secure the longer term future ofFeeding Birkenhead’s school holiday provision is to

seek a permanent base in schools and communitykitchens. (Frank Field, MP)

East Renfrewshire – Holiday Camp

East Renfrewshire Council have for the past 10 yearsoffered a holiday school, held in two schools in theauthority, at all extended school closures periods.The programme which provides meals for onaverage a 100 children per day and is supported bycatering and sporting staff. It aims to:

•Ensures children who are entitled to free schoolmeals continue to have access to a free healthy mealoutside of the school term.

•Provides sport, physical activity and creativeactivities which promote health and wellbeing duringthe school holidays.

•Engages with vulnerable children during holidaytimes, ensuring a safe and nurturing environment aswell as support from positive adult role models, whoencourage them to make friends and play withothers.

All of the above takes place whilst givingconsideration to:

• Future funding

• Parental involvement: Links to Early YearsCollaborative; coaching and volunteeringopportunities; Adult Learning opportunities –healthy eating, cooking on a budget.

• Community Hub vision – one stop shop forfamilies to access services

• More formal support from other councildepartments/services and evaluation with ourpartners. (Loraine Lawrie ,Quality Manager, EastRenfrewshire Council)

The Trussell Trust

‘Holiday hunger is highlighted as a problem at anumber of our Foodbanks across the UK. Thissummer 1,137 referrals were made to our Foodbanksspecifically because people needed extra food tofeed themselves and their children. Approximately 30of our foodbanks offered extra holiday mealprovisions this summer. During our research over thesummer holidays we found a number of issueshighlighting the absolute need for food in the schoolholiday. A lunch club ran in Southbank by RedcarFoodbank noticed that children were asking for foodbefore lunch because they hadn't had any breakfast.

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This led to them expanding to a breakfast and lunchclub to meet the needs of the community. We'reworking to roll out holiday meal projects through ourFoodbanks nationally to tackle the evident issue ofholiday hunger, but more needs to be done, startingwith a change in Government led policy.’ (LucyWilliams, More Than Food Project Coordinator)

Sheffield – Filling the Holiday Gap Pilot

In summer 2015 three primary schools in Sheffielddelivered a pilot programme of summertime activitiesand meals to over 60 children. The programme wasjointly developed by the schools and Taylor Shaw, thelocal government contracted school meals provider,in line with "Filling the Holiday Gap" guidance forsummertime provision; in each school the scheme ranfor two days each week of the summer holidays.

Funding for staff time and activities was via the pupilpremium with the food and kitchen staff being fullyfunded by Taylor Shaw. Children participated insports, craft, photography, cooking as well as trips tolocal libraries and days out - each day the childrenwere provided with a hot meal or packed lunch whichthey ate with their friends and school staff. "Those twodays a week were everything to her; she didn't missa day; she enjoyed everything" [Mum, daughterattended summer programme].

An evaluation of the programme is currently beingundertaken by Sheffield Hallam University looking atthe impact the programme has made to children andtheir parents, plus the operational issues in deliveringthe scheme over the holiday period. Initial findingsshow that parents valued the structure and socialsupport the programme provided for their children.School staff report children being ready andenthusiastic for return to school in September, havingmade new friends and built confidence trying newactivities over the summer.

In future, local government should do more to identifyfamilies most in need of holiday time support, inaddition to mapping local holiday provision andevaluating whether it really meets the needs ofvulnerable families. (Dr Rachel Rundle, SheffieldHallam University)

Northern Ireland - Strabane CommunityProject

We have identified a large gap within our area withschools off on holidays, putting families under addedpressure to feed their children. We rolled out a pilotprogramme over the holiday period not only offeringbreakfast but providing activities and learning for 17families and 32 children to enhance the quality and

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choices in their lives and reduce dependency on crisisintervention.

Importantly we are listening to what children andparents/guardians are saying and giving them the leadin this club and we are coming up with solutions andimplanting programmes and initiatives that are not onlycrisis intervention, but preventative measures thattackle social exclusion and poverty.

“I can definitely say that my son’s enthusiasm for gettinginvolved in play has been fuelled doing differentactivities and trips. His confidence has definitely grown- how he feels about himself, and his new friends. Hehas really grown in confidence over the summer.”(Parent of an 11 year old boy who had struggled to mix.)Parents also recognised that the breakfast clubprovided an invaluable place for kids to play and let offsteam. (Ursula Gallagher, Foodbank and BreakfastClub coordinator)

MakeLunch

MakeLunch had 40 Lunch Kitchens open this summer,spread right across England and Scotland. Betweenthem, these teams of volunteers were open for 388days, with 681 volunteers serving 7,749 meals to 1,472children. Of these, 11 were opening for the first time,having completed MakeLunch initial training during thesummer term.

Parents/carers and children all benefit from the work ofthe Lunch Kitchens, with several comments about thedifference it makes, not just in providing food, but alsothe social interaction with other families. One of theLunch Kitchens in Luton worked closely with the schoolthat ran a week of sports and drama activities for thechildren. A parent commented afterwards that this hadmade a significant difference to family life. “It’s allowedmy partner and I to continue working for another weekbefore we’ve had to make childcare arrangements andplan for the impact this has on our family budget."

Our Ardeer, Ardrossan, Royston and Thurrock Kitchenshave been participating in the initial evaluation pilot forthe Brakes Meals & More programme, working with aresearcher from the University of Northumbria toevaluate the effectiveness of the services we’reproviding. These Kitchens will soon be receiving the firstround of the Brakes Meals & More funding and willcontinue to assist with the evaluation and research. Weare now looking to roll out the Meals & More scheme toa further 10 Kitchens who will receive funding, volunteersupport and activity materials. (Rachel Warick Founder)

The Holiday Hunger Task Group would like to thank allthose individuals and organisations who contributed

testimonies and information about research and holidayprovision activity to this update. We also would like tocommend and acknowledge the efforts of the all whoare involved in such projects up and down the UK manywho are working in a voluntary capacity on meagrefunding.

Conclusion and points forGovernment In the summer of 2015 APPG on School Food HolidayHunger Task Group members visited holiday provisionprojects across the UK. The visits were to supportdelivery, engage in research and to identify models ofpractice that could be replicated. It is clear to us that noone model fits all. What is also apparent is that fundingand policy to support those organisations who areworking on the front line is urgently needed. Resourceby way of guidance, training and easily accessedinformation to address the multiple needs of childrenand families living in poverty that are compounded byschool holiday periods must be forth coming to bringabout change. We know that there is not only a growingawareness of this issue but also the will to supportchildren and young people and particularly thoseeligible for free school meals with programmes in theirown communities. There now needs to be a joined upstrategic approach to help give children and youngpeople access to life chances they are currently beingdenied. Wellbeing and achievement go hand in handand for the next generation to thrive and become asuccess and healthy workforce of the future we mustdeliver services differently to tackle child food povertyin the UK.

We urge all UK government regions to support our callfor:

• Funding for development of resources and training fororganisations to deliver and support new and existingholiday provision programmes• Research into scale of child hunger in the UK and itseffect on learning• Policy to support holiday provision programmes thatinclude meals and enrichment activities

For further information contact Rob Bailey SecretariatAPPG on School Food - [email protected]

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