Latest news with #CarolClark
BBC News
22-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Stockton children's holiday scheme funding plea
A council is calling for more funding for its holiday activities programme after government support was Council said money from the Department for Education (DfE) for the Holidays Are Fun (HAF) project had dropped from £916,790 last year to £883,540 - a reduction of 3.7%.Councillor Carol Clark, chair of the children and young people select committee, said the funding "kept going down" for the project, which has been running for five years and offers activities including horse-riding, martial arts and paddle-boarding, as well as healthy DfE has been approached for comment. More than 9,000 children are eligible and demand is expected to rise with the expansion of free school meals, the council 1,580 children who attended at Easter 2024 took up 5,227 spaces of the 6,000 available. Clark said: "The funding goes down every year, but free school meal eligibility goes up. "More children meet the criteria but we're getting less money."I don't know how councils are expected to survive - we can only do so much."Mandie Rowlands, service lead for school support and sufficiency, said funding had only been agreed until March 2026. The programme had previously been hampered by a non "user-friendly" booking system but that has now been replaced with a "sophisticated" system which goes live on 4 July, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. Ms Rowland said: "We are going to really make sure we concentrate on our 10 most deprived areas and have those activities in all those areas. "We've had over 50 providers apply, which is creating over 17,000 spaces for the summer."Councillor Ray Godwin said it was "ironic" that as the booking system was "perfected" the funding could run out."I think maybe all the councillors need to lobby to make sure the funding doesn't go away," he said. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
10-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Stockton children's food and holiday programme poorly attended
A holiday activities programme is to be overhauled after most of its places went Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) project in Stockton, which has been running for five years, offers activities including horse-riding, martial arts and paddle-boarding, as well as healthy meals. However, a review of the programme found that its booking system was "unfit for purpose" and, during Easter last year, 1,580 children and young people attended although there were 6,000 Council, which runs the programme with £1m from the Department for Education (DfE), said it offered balanced meals to children and "much-needed support" for families. The council select committee report found the booking system was not "user friendly".It also found parents and professionals did not know about the programme and many people did not realise they were eligible to take part, despite numerous promotion efforts. It also found low numbers of secondary school children and children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) were not taking up places, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. The council said the programme offered an "astonishing" range of activities and it was working on providing SEND-only sessions in committee chair Carol Clark said: "These activities allow our children to have fun and make new friends as well supporting their development, including lifelong learning."The council is now considering 16 recommendations including a better booking system and promoting HAF with parish and town councils. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
