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Spring (Easter) Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme in West Suffolk

 

 What is the Holiday Activities and Food Programme?

 This is a £220m national programme funded by the Department for Education. It is being coordinated locally by West Suffolk Council on behalf of Suffolk County Council and delivered through a range of partners.

 

Who is the HAF programme for?

The programme is primarily targeted at families who have children or young people who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.

It allows councils to use up to 15 per cent of its local funding to make places available for families who wouldn’t normally qualify but who are struggling with the cost of living and suffering financial hardship.

West Suffolk Council has used this discretion before and will be applying it to help more struggling families over the school spring (Easter) holidays. This will be available on a first come first served basis.

Families with children on benefits related free school meals should have already received information through their school about HAF in their area.

Those in financial hardship can find out how to apply for a place or places at https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/leisure/holiday-events.cfm

 

What’s on?

Just to give you a little more about the activities that our partners have on this spring.

There are a total of 1735 places in 124 sessions taking place across many of our towns and a number of our villages.

 Activities include – swimming, multi-sports, family park cooking, horse riding, fitness, environmental projects, roller skating, Easter themed creative workshops, Easter egg hunts, yoga and mindfulness and forest schools.

 West Suffolk Council are working with 18 external providers including enterprises, local organisations and leisure businesses. There are areas without activities. If you think there’s a particular organisation we could be working with in your area, please email families.communities@westsuffolk.gov.uk and include “HAF” in the subject line.

 The activities have been targeted in the areas where there is greatest need ie more students who receive benefits related free school meals. That said, we recognise there may be a small number of pupils who are eligible and live in areas where there isn’t provision. These families should have received a letter from their school or college to make them aware of how they book onto other activities on offer in West Suffolk. If transport is an issue, Suffolk County Council may be able to help - please direct enquiries to HAFenquiries@suffolk.gov.uk

 Further details of what is happening where and when can be found at https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/leisure/holiday-events.cfm

 This page will also give details as to how eligible families can book their place.

 

The cost-of-living webpage can be found at www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/cost-of-living where further advice and support is available.

 


Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy – consultation and online survey

West Suffolk Council are shaping West Suffolk Council’s new Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy. 

The new strategy will replace the current Housing Strategy and the current Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy. By adopting a single strategy document, they are further strengthening and aligning the council’s commitment to deliver against their housing priorities. The council adopted its new Strategic Priorities in December 2023 including the delivery of affordable, available and decent homes – see: https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/Council/Policies_Strategies_and_Plans/upload/WSCs-Strategic-Priorities-2024-28.pdf. Through this consultation and development of the new strategy, they want to understand how they can further deliver on the council’s strategic priority in order to help more people better afford a place to live, improve living conditions and reduce homelessness.

By taking into consideration information contained in the housing and homelessness data pack (https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/Council/Consultations/upload/Housing-and-homelessness-data-pack.pdf) and understanding of current housing pressures, the emerging actions largely fall into the following operational and priority areas:

  1. Deliver more homes
  2. Regulation and housing standards
  3. Supporting and housing local people
  4. The environment

Consultation and online survey: At this stage of developing the strategy, they would like to hear feedback from parish and town councils on proposed actions to include in the new Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy which will help to direct the council’s approach to housing over the next few years.

The consultation closes on Monday 18 March 2024 and the online survey can be found at the following link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/WestSuffolkHousingHomelessnessRoughSleepingStrategy/

Further information will be circulated about the ongoing engagement around this new strategy throughout the spring and early summer.

If you have any queries specifically relating to the consultation and online survey, please contact policy@westsuffolk.gov.uk 

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