Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s services that provided Members on the progress of Durham’s Fun and Food programme during 2022 (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Child Poverty Operations Manager was in attendance to deliver a presentation that provided details of the funding; the County Durham delivery model; the number of projects funded and the number of children engaged; other developments; challenges, communications and marketing (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

Councillor Crute commented that the scheme does make a difference and the point was reinforced by some of the comments by the children in the video and the report. He stated that the scheme was locality based around the AAP structure and depending on a report going to Cabinet next week there was potential to change the structure to local networks and asked the Officer if they foresee any problems transferring the project from one structure to another. He commented that any scheme was only as good as its weakest link and one of the challenges was non attendance by children who had been booked onto activities. Whilst asking how this could be prevented, he stated that overall, it was a positive scheme.

The Child Poverty Operations Manager responded that only part of the funding was through the AAP, and they did not foresee any problems with regard to the AAP areas as they had coverage across all areas. They had incidents where organisations had wanted to deliver across more than one AAP area, and they had supported them to co-ordinate that. They were in year three of the DfE funding and stated that all the AAPs work well together and there was an element of flexibility as families could cross over boundaries. In terms of the no shows, this was an issue nationally and the DfE were aware of it but left it up to each local authority to manage bookings. In Durham they allowed people to make their own bookings.

In response to a question from Councillor Walton, the Child Poverty Operations Manager indicated that some families were only engaging for the trips out and did not take part in centre-based activities which was against the ethos of the programme. In view of this, they shifted the criteria in what groups could apply for to ensure that it delivered enriching activities. In order to be eligible for funding an application should have centre-based activity and on the back of that could offer a maximum of three trips over the six-week holidays.

Councillor Walton commented that at her local centre when children get dropped off or picked up, they coordinate with local support networks to provide information and give out leaflets.

The Child Poverty Operations Manager indicated that they were working with credit union to conduct some focus campaign over the holidays to talk to parents and families.

Councillor Coult referred to the half term fun and food that had funding until February 2024 and asked what steps were taken to ensure that the programme continued and if AAPs were oversubscribed, do they prioritise the next time.

The Child Poverty Operations Manager responded that she was preparing a report to feedback to the steering group to look for guidance for additional funding or if they needed to go to external funders. Each AAP was allocated funding based on children eligible for free school meals and were required to apply each holiday time so there was no preference, each application would be looked at on face value.

Councillor Scurfield stated that the funding regime focused on children who were eligible for free school meals and asked what targets and expectations they placed on providers to be focused on how they were engaging young people and was the programme looking to ensure they were getting to the right children and families more effectively.

The Child Poverty Operations Manager indicated that as part of the application process they had to identify how they were going to target and engage with those who were eligible for free school meals and those who were vulnerable. They worked with groups to support them to reach the right groups, they did not have a set target they wanted groups to aspire to 50% free school meal eligible children. She continued by stating that they encourage groups to engage with more children who are vulnerable and eligible for free school meals. The DfE do allow a 15% slippage to engage with children who are not eligible for free school meals. She stated that a lot of voluntary sector partners brought matched funding so they could offer to children who were not eligible for free school meals. At the end of each holiday period, they provided data to each group on the number of children expected to be on the system and the number of children who were eligible.

Councillor Scurfield asked if 50% of children eligible for free school meals was the target for the programme.

The Child Poverty Operations Manager responded that this was the target for Durham.

Mrs Gunn asked what the actual engagement was for people eligible for free school meals.

The Child Poverty Operations Manager indicated that last year 40% of children engaged who were eligible for free school meals.

Resolved: That the contents of the report and presentation be noted.