Almost £1m in grants will be given to 65 summer holiday schemes for children in West Sussex.
The money will be taken from the £1.74m of Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme funding given to the county council by the government.
The aim of the schemes is to provide holiday activities and healthy food to children who are eligible for free school meals.
The £970,265 in total was approved by Paul Wagstaff, assistant director (education & skills) on Tuesday (July 12) along with £200,000 to provide for schemes during the Christmas holiday.
Another £30,000 was approved to cover the cost of meals for eight of the schemes which could not provide them.
A council spokesman said:
“School holidays can be particular pressure points for some families because of increased costs – such as food and childcare – and reduced incomes.
“For some children that can lead to a holiday experience gap – with children from disadvantaged families less likely to access organised out-of-school activities; more likely to experience unhealthy holidays in terms of nutrition and physical health and more likely to experience social isolation.”
The summer programme will offer a total of 32,041 free places from 41 providers – at least 2,254 children each day.
Activities will include skateboarding, forest and beach school, arts and crafts, computer coding and drama as well as outdoor pursuits and sports clubs.
Among those who will receive a share of the pot are:
- Southeast Kids Camp, which will be running schemes in Crawley and Southwick
- SB Sports Coaching Ltd will be running schemes in Sompting, Angmering, Barnham, Horsham and Worthing
- Woodland Wonder Forest School will be running schemes in Littlehampton and Chichester
- South Coast Sports will be running schemes in Handcross, Bognor Regis and Chichester.
The council first received HAF funding in 2021, with the summer, Christmas and Easter (2022) schemes attended by 4,475 children.
The spokesman added:
“All providers have shared the positive feedback they received from parents and officers have carried out parent surveys to gather their opinions.
"Parents value the HAF programme for a variety of reasons including that their children were able to try something new.
“Providers were proud to be part of HAF and warmly welcomed new children.”
To find out about the schemes available, log on to the council’s Family Information Service website at familyinfoservice.westsussex.gov.uk .
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