The third theme focuses on the perceived benefits of holiday provision at a community level as well as at an individual level for parents, children and volunteers. Key stakeholders identified a range of benefits for delivery partners who participate in the programmes of holiday provision. Notably, delivery partners, such as community and voluntary groups, have used their involvement to enhance their existing relationships with organisations and agencies and build capacity within their communities. One key stakeholder reflected on the benefits of these partnerships:
‘It’s really working and we find that once they’ve approached the referral agencies about highlighting families and that some of, a lot of referral agencies have actually wanted to get involved with planning and setting up the club as well so a lot of Children’s Centres have let [holiday provision programme] use their venues and they’ve provided some staff and they’ve done the registration and all that kind of stuff as well.’ (key stakeholder, 5)
In addition to enhancing relationships with partner organisations, key stakeholders recognised that delivery partners have strengthened relationships with users of their services. Consequently, delivery partners have developed a greater awareness of the issues facing families in their neighbourhoods.
‘So even though they were with the youth workers and even though they attended on a regular basis, no one noticed that they were starving, well I shouldn’t say starving, hungry and being malnutritious [sic] and not having food at home and it was only the food programme that brought it to the attention. So they noticed how hungry they were and were actually eating the food up. The questions started rising up and saying how come you’ve had three like three portions, and then it’s like the story comes out, well I have pot noodles at home. So that wasn’t happening, there wasn’t that discussion around food before in community centres, it was just about wellbeing in general and I think there was a lot of bravado with children not to mention their full circumstances.’ (key stakeholder, 6)
Furthermore, key stakeholders mentioned that participation of community and voluntary
organisations in holiday provision helped to increase their membership base, attract new families and develop relationships with families outside of their usual demographic.
‘What’s happened since then, there has been a mother and toddler group set up and then their parents, the grandparents are coming in and they are doing stuff, they are doing a swap shop and stuff so this sort of hub which was dying, not in terms of footfall, but was quite stagnant has been revitalised because of the movie element being introduced, the food being introduced and all these new characters coming in saying, “Oh can we use this building to do this, can we use this building to do that”.’ (key stakeholder, 3)
Beyond the benefits highlighted for delivery partners, participants reflected on how these programmes have benefitted the wider community. Seven participants perceived that holiday
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provision programmes help to break down barriers within communities. One key stakeholder reflected on improvements in community cohesion resulting from the delivery of holiday provision.
‘We don’t have children causing nuisance really, hanging around on the street and you know, we sometimes find they build that connection, we have local volunteers, the kids are sort of meeting these volunteers who live on the estate, building relationships with other people and it’s that sort of intergenerational stuff as well.’ (key stakeholder, 11)
In addition to improvements in relationships within communities, key stakeholders reflected on how holiday provision has enhanced the skills and built confidence in the community as a whole.
‘So community cohesion, bringing people together, bringing barriers down on estates, dead important when we have a lot of BME communities that are now living amongst British families, having events like that enables people to get to know each other so there isn’t a barrier with that person over there who comes from some country or another and I’m not going talk to them. We get them into the [holiday provision programme] we eat and we talk and the barriers come down. So that is fantastic. And I think overall it is confidence for communities and maybe didn’t have confidence and maybe didn’t think they could actually deliver this and like I said it wasn’t us who delivered it.’ (key stakeholder, 1)
At an individual level, policymakers and key stakeholders reflected on the positive benefits for the participants of holiday provision programmes: parents, children and volunteers. From the
interviews, seven key stakeholders identified that holiday provision offered support for parents during the school holidays through the structure and provision of food and fun activities for their children within a safe environment. One key stakeholder expressed how the structure of this provision provided respite to parents and support with parenting.
‘So the fact that we provided even just two hours a day gave some structure to the day for them. It was a bit of social interaction for them, for the parents. And another thing the parents said was because the kids were accessing the school premises, their behaviour improved because a lot of parents in [town in North East] haven’t got very firm boundaries but because the children knew that in school boundaries, this is what I can do and this is what I can’t do, and so again that relieved a bit of burden on the parents.’ (key stakeholder, 4)
By providing parenting support, one key stakeholder referred to holiday provision as a ‘soft touch’ parenting programme.
‘A lot of people don’t necessarily want to go on parenting programmes because of, you know, I guess the whole area around parenting is quite complex and, you know, why people are being referred into programmes and um, and but this is really, in some ways, a parenting programme … People are in an environment where they are learning from, there’s kind of peer learning around things like behaviour management and activities and engagement with children.’ (key stakeholder, 7)
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Six participants reflected on the positive outcomes of children and parents’ participation in the activities at holiday clubs. One key stakeholder expressed how their activities were selected to enrich and educate children during the school holidays.
‘We try and put on activities where they’re learning so they’re getting hands on like cooking or baking and stuff that they can take back as well. Like a lot of them don’t do a lot of cooking and baking and they really enjoy that kind of thing and they often say, we don’t sort of cook at home as a family and we just kind of eat frozen meals and what have you so it’s kind of taking that away and if we do put on an activity, we try and give some sort of information, whether it’s a recipe or something that they can take away and try again at home. We usually find that kids will do that, they’ll take it away and come back and the parents will say oh we made this at home.’ (key stakeholder, 11)
Furthermore, holiday provision is viewed as an opportunity for families to broaden their horizons and experience new activities.
‘We try to provide stimulating play that means the children are doing something different other than they would be doing left to their own devices. We try to get them off the estate wherever we can, and they can have at least a day spent doing something different and interesting and stimulating.’ (key stakeholder, 12)
In addition to the range of activities offered, participants regarded food provision as a valuable part of the programme. Stakeholders considered food to not only enhance the nutritional intake of children but also improve children’s eating behaviours.
‘Their children are eating more vegetables so their diet is becoming a little bit healthier over the summer and they have tried new foods that they didn’t like before or they didn’t think they liked so they’ve asked their parents to buy it as well so they’ve maybe changed some of the meal plans the family were doing at home anyway so hopefully having a longer term kind of nutritional impact there.’ (key stakeholder, 5)
Six of the participants discussed the benefits of recruiting community members as volunteers. One participant discussed how holiday provision provided community members with an opportunity to participate in short term voluntary work without the pressure of long-term commitment.
‘If people are putting their hand up to volunteer, even if it’s just volunteering for the summer holidays, it’s actually a good thing and you are not signing on the dotted line for ever and that has built confidence with people and actually there are other things we can do.’ (key stakeholder, 2)
Moreover, policymakers and key stakeholders reflected on how volunteers acquired new skills and developed confidence from their involvement in holiday provision and from undertaking training. One key stakeholder described how these new skills improved the employment prospects of their volunteers, for instance some volunteer parents have subsequently acquired paid catering-related jobs after attending food hygiene training and participating in holiday provision programmes.
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In addition to improving the skills of community members through their participation in holiday provision, six key stakeholders anticipated that community members, including parents will, over time, take on further responsibility with delivering holiday provision within their communities.
‘I think parents could really drive this. They could really take responsibility for this.’ (key stakeholder, 4)
4.3.4. Challenges of delivering holiday provision
Policymakers and key stakeholders positively viewed holiday provision and identified tangible benefits at the individual, family and community level. Nevertheless, participants identified a number of challenges and barriers regarding the implementation and delivery of holiday provision. The key difficulties are associated with targeting those families in need, developing partnerships, attracting funding, staffing of holiday clubs, and addressing food insecurity.
Nine participants reflected on whether their holiday provision targeted and attracted those families most in need of support during the school holidays. Although the majority of key stakeholders stated that their programme had adopted a universal provision, they did not have the capacity to assess the demographics of the families accessing their holiday provision. Nonetheless, they anticipated that as their programme operated within disadvantaged communities they were, by proxy, targeting families most in need.
‘When it comes to free school meals, this was the original vision, you know, out of the people that we got, I couldn’t tell you if they were eligible for free school meals, I would like to think that a lot of activity was held maybe in more deprived areas that the likelihood is higher than lower, yeah, um but I couldn’t guarantee that. If I had the capacity for someone to go through the 4,000 postcodes and cross reference it with 800 odd postcodes then we could find that but there isn’t the capacity to do that to be fair.’ (key stakeholder, 3)
Two participants recognised that a closer partnership with schools, agencies and key workers would help to target those families most in need. Furthermore, participants acknowledged that, despite the universal provision, sections of the community, in particular black and minority ethnic groups and families with disabilities, were underrepresented within their holiday programmes.
Furthermore, one participant reflected on how they required parents to accompany their child to their holiday club and this requirement was an unforeseen barrier for some families.
‘It was a family event and children could only access it if they came with a parent and that has been a huge barrier, believe it or not, to a lot of families in [town in North East] even though what we offered was free of charge.’ (key stakeholder 4)
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Thus, participants acknowledged a number of limitations to the universal approach of their programme of holiday provision and thus holiday provision was not as far-reaching as originally anticipated, raising the issue of the inclusivity of this type of provision.
A second key challenge highlighted by six participants was how to secure funding and develop partnerships for holiday provision. Policymakers and key stakeholders recognised that
implementing a programme of holiday provision required seed funding and highlighted that this represented a challenge for their delivery partners on an annual basis. One key stakeholder highlighted the necessity of sourcing and accessing new funding streams such as the National Lottery Awards for All scheme.
‘This year we weren’t able to rely on much local authority area budgets at all so we’ve had to use Awards For All funding quite a lot and we know that because local authorities are reducing their investment, that everybody across the country are now putting in
applications to Awards For All funding so we anticipate that that will be overcommitted and we will have to look for new sources of funding.’ (key stakeholder, 12)
In addition to the challenge of securing funding, participants highlighted the lack of strategic planning provided by local authorities to help coordinate and deliver holiday provision in their region.
‘Local authorities have wanted to partner but that hasn’t quite worked out. It tends to be we’ve all sat around a table and said where you’re doing something and where I’m doing something, um so it would be interesting to get a better working relationship with them.’ (key stakeholder, 2)
Key stakeholders used their local knowledge and deprivation data to identify neighbourhoods, within their region, most likely in need of holiday provision. Under the commission-led model, delivery partners, including schools and community groups, operating within those neighbourhoods were invited to apply for funding and participate in their programme of holiday provision if they met certain criteria. Nonetheless, five key stakeholders reflected on the challenge of engaging and recruiting schools and community groups to participate in their programme. One key stakeholder reflected on the limitation of the commission-led approach such as the fact that their programme of holiday provision supported the communities with delivery partners who had the capacity to deliver holiday provision and thus demonstrated gaps in the delivery of this provision.
‘So throughout it all we only facilitate it, we didn’t tell people, we asked them is this something you think will be important for your community, would it make a difference and every one of them said yes so if they hadn’t of said that, we would have moved and went somewhere else and give our services to another community because if they don’t want to improve or deliver, we haven’t got the capacity to afford them.’ (key stakeholder, 1)
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Furthermore, key stakeholders reflected that whilst community and voluntary groups expressed an interest to be involved in offering and delivering this provision, it was difficult to attract schools to engage with the programmes.
‘The schools, out of the 24 there was five that got back to us. There was one involved which was XX, um one expressed an interest but the timing was wrong, one said we could have a building but no community group was interested in getting it, another one just wanted the money and it was very frustrating.’ (key stakeholder, 3)
In conclusion, there is a demonstrable issue with the commission-led model of holiday provision in securing sufficient investment and in developing relationships with agencies and delivery partners to ensure a comprehensive programme of holiday provision is implemented within the most deprived communities within a region.
The third issue highlighted by policymakers and key stakeholders constitutes the staffing of holiday provision. It is evident from the interviews that delivery partners rely on volunteers to help deliver holiday provision. Whilst participants reflected on the benefits of involving community members including parents and young people, seven key stakeholders highlighted concerns around the reliance on voluntary staff for such a complex service to deliver. The respondents recognised that providing a comprehensive holiday provision required a range of skills and resources which can be burdensome and a barrier for the recruitment of willing volunteers. One participant questioned whether volunteers should be responsible for safeguarding the food security of children during the school holidays.
‘The assumption is to me that this will be done by volunteers and that to me seems crazy that the food security of the poor is based on the goodwill of volunteers um, you know, and for children, it’s different for adults, children, firstly malnourishment has a much bigger impact, it has a lifelong impact.’ (key stakeholder, 7)
Whilst many of the delivery partners, selected by key stakeholders, already delivered services within the community, participants reflected on how staff within these organisations still required additional training and upskilling to be able to deliver holiday provision.
‘Fifty percent of them struggled with the whole management side but one of the things that none of us ever considered, and I don’t know why because is so simple, is cooking; no one did any cooking training, no one ever sat back and said we need to train the volunteer cooks.’ (key stakeholder, 6)
Furthermore, organisations experienced a high turnover of volunteers as they moved on to seek employment once they had acquired experience from their voluntary role in holiday provision. One key stakeholder from a housing association discussed the lack of community members who are
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either willing or able to volunteer and the implications for the long term sustainability of this provision.
‘What we do tend to find is that where organisations, including our own, have put too much emphasis on volunteer-led solutions that large amounts of work are suddenly being undone overnight by those volunteers moving on or having change in those circumstances means they are not able to fulfil that role. So as things stand at the moment, due to the fluid nature of the estates that we have, the lack of retired people who are young enough and have the professional experience and confidence to be able to develop organisations which are self-sustaining on our estates means that it is very difficult to see a time when we would be able to step back totally.’ (key stakeholder, 12)
A fourth issue highlighted by seven participants was whether holiday provision adequately reduces the risk of families experiencing food insecurity. Participants questioned the frequency of holiday provision and whether a provision available two or three days per week provided sufficient support to families during the school holidays. In the absence of any statutory guidelines or core
infrastructure directed by national government to shape holiday provision, participants reflected on how programmes of holiday provision had developed in an ‘ad hoc way’. One key stakeholder raised the concern that some organisations are positioning themselves as delivering holiday provision without providing adequate support to families.
‘Some people were doing it for like three days or for two days just at the end of the summer holidays, that’s not anything really to do with holiday hunger, that’s just having a fun time but they were putting it under that umbrella.’ (key stakeholder, 2)
Furthermore, one participant reflected on the need for further guidance in respect of addressing