Holiday Activities and Food Programme 2025/26

Description

Cheshire East Council is seeking to commission a number of providers to deliver face to face school holiday activities for young people in Cheshire East. The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme is a 'Department for Education' initiative enabling local authorities to coordinate a programme that provides school age young people between the ages of 4 - 16, and up to age 18 for eligible SEND young people, healthy food and enriching activities during the summer and winter holidays. There is potential for delivery periods during the October 2025 and February 2026 half term holidays, but these are subject to DfE approval and funding availability.
Service vision:
We currently have an operational service across Cheshire East, which we have the desire to extend and enhance. To improve the existing service, we will focus on the following priorities:
1. SEND
2. Teen
3. New geographical coverage
4. New activity types
Tenders will be accepted under two LOTS -
LOT 1 is for providers who are offering general HAF provision.
LOT 2 is restricted to applications for specialist provision e.g., SEND, teen.
The Cheshire East Holiday Activities and Food Programme provision currently falls within the following broad categories of activity offer and operate in the following general locations.
Current activities and locations:
> General sports camps LOT 1
Crewe, Macclesfield, Congleton, Sandbach, Nantwich, Middlewich, Holmes Chapel
> Generic holiday camps LOT 1
Crewe, Macclesfield, Congleton, Scholar Green, Wilmslow
> Creative holiday camps LOT 1
Sandbach
> Farm based holiday camps LOT 1 & LOT 2
Haslington
>Teen provision (LOT 2) - sports based & day out event activities
Crewe, Macclesfield, Congleton, Nantwich, Holmes Chapel
> SEND (LOT 2)
Crewe, Wrenbury and day-out based provision across Cheshire East
The Cheshire East Holiday Activities and Food Programme would like to expand their current offer and introduce new proposed activity provision - the programme would welcome tenders that offer a focus on, but not limited to the following -
> Art and craft
> Dance and movement
> Drama
> Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
> Languages
> Specialist sports
> Animal and nature-based holiday camps