Thank you for all the support schools provided before Christmas in promoting the Holiday Activities & Food Programme (HAF) to families in receipt of benefits-related free school meals.

A unique code system for winter was introduced to ensure that children accessing the HAF programme were eligible. Having received feedback that this was not easily accessible and was a barrier to some families accessing much needed support, we have changed the system to make it more straightforward for families to access their unique code.

Your support in rolling out the new system would be appreciated. Throughout this week, all school Business Managers or Administrators will be sent a template letter to go out to parents and carers who have a child in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. Schools will also receive a list of unique codes to cover all eligible children in your school – one code is to be issued to each eligible child.  

Please can I ask that you share the attached letter and unique code with your eligible families before Friday 23 February, to ensure that that they receive their codes before bookings open for Easter HAF clubs.

As the same code will remain with children for their time within your school, after the main distribution of the codes there should be minimal admin support needed, other than updating your FSM numbers as needed before each round of HAF delivery.

Thank you – the Derby HAF Team.

Email: DerbyHAF@derby.gov.uk