MARCO TEORICO

Paid staff and volunteers reflected on their experiences of living and working within the

community. They identified a need for holiday club provision through dialogue with local schools and community organisations, such as housing associations and children’s centres; examining poverty, FSM levels and foodbank use within their area; or via existing relationships with families and children who have previously accessed services or provision from their organisation. Thus, the theme of ‘need for holiday club provision’ cuts across three levels of observation: community level, household level, and individual level.

At the community level, staff recognised a lack of affordable activities within their community for families during the school holidays. With the exception of one holiday club, this was identified as a key issue by paid staff and volunteers. Staff recognised that families have difficulty in accessing activities or provision appropriate for children and young people of all ages or are reliant on free, weather-dependent activities such as the local park.

‘There’s nothing really for them to do. A lot of the families that come in where there’s the parents the kids and the babies, they tend to say there’s loads to do but we don’t have the money to go and pay a fiver for a couple of hours …. They are bored and their kids are bored and a lot of them we found out are saying there’s nowhere to go with a lot of different age range children.’ (Amanda, paid staff, club 4)

Need for holiday club

Community level: affordable activities and childcare provision; absence of FSM; welfare support

Household level: household finances & food insecurity Individual level: support for parents

Delivery of holiday club Type of provision offered: food; activities

Issues: administration, planning and funding; food preparation; location; staffing; attendance

Perceived outcomes

Community cohesion; support for parents; positive experience for staff

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Families not only experience the challenge of accessing affordable activities to entertain the children but staff at child-only clubs recognised a need for affordable childcare provision for working parents:

‘I think holiday provision is needed everywhere, not just this community or this area, it’s needed in all areas and in all communities. We have working parents who need

somewhere for their children. This is my personal opinion, things like nurseries which charge up to £130 a day, are beyond the reach of even people who have got good jobs, they are beyond the reach of them, charging £130 a day.’ (Nazir, paid staff, club 9)

In addition to the lack of affordable activities and childcare provision, paid staff from three communities in London and North East England highlighted the issues of crime and antisocial behaviour within their communities and the lack of safe places for children to play or socialise during school holidays:

‘I also set it up because of postcode wars and gang crime that’s affecting our youth and children and so because there’s not a lot of youth clubs available, there’s hardly any actually.’ (Monica, paid staff, club 14)

The characteristics of the community and the lack of availability of adequate and affordable provision for children are contributing factors for the need for holiday club provision. In addition, staff highlighted that the lack of FSM provision during the school holidays is an issue for families attending holiday clubs. Staff identified that many parents of children participating in the holiday club rely upon FSM provision during the term time, and recognised the additional pressure to feed the family during the school holidays:

‘A lot of people who have free school meals don’t have to pay ten pounds on school meals and then in the holidays they’ve got to pay that for food every day for six weeks and that’s a challenge.’ (Lisa, volunteer, club 7)

Moreover, participants highlighted the challenge for households reliant on welfare support:

‘I have seen children who really have got a need because we got recent immigrants, you know people have come across and they got nothing and other children whose families are not doing great with issues you know. You’ve got mum with four kids and she’s on her own and she’s not in work and she is on welfare benefits and it’s really hard.’ (Amy, paid staff, club 6)

At the household level, a significant issue identified by staff at all holiday clubs was the financial pressure experienced by families during the school holidays. Participants identified the financial hardship faced by parents not only as a result of the lack of FSM provision and the cost of feeding their families but in addition the cost of entertaining children and participating in activities:

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‘I think sometimes it’s hard for parents to find things to do over the summer holidays. It can be quite costly, taking them out for the whole six weeks so having somewhere that is close to home, where the children can engage in the activities, that’s not so costly for them.’ (Hannah, paid staff, club 11)

As a result of the financial hardship faced by families, paid staff from child-only holiday clubs recognised the risk of households experiencing food insecurity:

‘One of the young people here, he will come and tell me, during term time, when we have our eating session, he’ll say, I’m really hungry, I haven’t had anything since I got home from school. So even when we are not doing the lunches, we’ve got some bananas and get them out. If we have a bit of pasta or some toast on for them, so there’s always something and it’s building the relationships with the kids so they can tell us, actually Sam, I’m really hungry, it’s not that my mum aint feeding me, it’s that there’s nothing indoors’ (Sam, paid staff, club 9)

In addition to the challenges at the community and household level, participants identified the needs of parents during the school holidays. Participants’ views reflected their judgements on parenting and frequently referred to parents as ‘struggling’ during the school holidays and in need of holiday club provision for support with parenting:

‘I have seen with their lunch boxes. Some of the parents provide lunch boxes, it’s a packet of crisps, a fruit shoot and a bar of chocolate and I don’t think the parents know how to cope. For some people it could be financial, I know for some it is financial but others it’s just convenience, they are literally just running out of the house in the morning.’ (Nazir, paid staff, club 9)

Moreover, participants identified that parents not only required financial support to provide a meal but respite from planning and preparing meals for the family:

‘A lot of them are struggling because it’s a long time that two weeks off is a long time and it gives the parents a bit of a break and a lot of the time they are having to provide yet another meal when a lot of them are short of money so it’s good got that they’ve got that break really they’ve got those two days and when they don’t have to think about what they’re going to do their children and don’t have to think about what they’re going to feed them and things like that and it’s all sorted and taken care of.’ (Nicole, paid staff, club 1)

Participants focused on the needs of parents rather than specific needs of children during the school holidays.