Holiday activities and food programme

Eligibility

Since September 2023, all primary school children in state-funded schools in London have automatically received free school meals. This scheme has been extended and will continue through the 2024 to 2025 school year.

However, getting free school meals does not automatically mean your child can join the HAF programme. The HAF programme is only for children who receive benefits-related free meals (FSM), which is different from the free meals all primary school children now get.

Even if your child already receives free school meals, you should still apply for benefits-related FSM if you think you might qualify.

Children in reception, year 1, and year 2 in England’s state-funded schools get free meals under the Department for Education’s universal infant free school meal (UIFSM) policy. But to take part in the HAF programme, they must also qualify for benefits-related FSM.

Your child can join the HAF programme if all of these apply:

• They get benefits-related free school meals
• You live in Enfield or your child goes to school in Enfield
• They are in reception to year 11

If you’re not sure if your child qualifies or want to apply for free school meals, see our free school meals page.

Additional needs

If your child needs additional support, share as much detail as possible on your booking to ensure the provider is fully equipped to support your child. You can also contact your HAF provider to discuss in further detail.

We look forward to welcoming your child at one of the many activities and sessions in the borough this winter.

Please see below levels of SEN support, on each provider page you will see the level of support they can provide:

• Level 1 - Mild to moderate needs, able to go to the toilet and eat their lunch with correct supervision, but do not need direct support and do not present risky behaviours such as being of harm to themselves or to others
• Level 2 – Moderate needs, direct support for personal care (toilet/nappy/pull-up), direct support for eating, physical, sensory and medical needs requiring regular support, and able to regulate their behaviour without causing harm to self or others
• Level 3 - Moderate to severe needs, direct support for personal care (toilet/nappy/pull-up), high level of support for eating, may have limited language skills but able to express needs, requires support to regulate their behaviour and may cause harm to self or others when dysregulated and physical, sensory and medical needs requiring regular support
• Level 4 - Severe to profound needs, direct support for personal care (toilet/nappy/pull-up), personalised support for eating, may have a severe impairment in their functional use of language, requires personalised support to manage dysregulated behaviour which may be unpredictable and cause harm

For help with your vouchers, visit Holiday Activities – parent guides.

If you have any further questions, you can email haf@enfield.gov.uk.

Current programme dates

Summer 2025 HAF programme

Our Holiday Activities and Food programme will run from Monday 21 July to Friday 29 August, excluding weekends.

Parents and carers of eligible children will receive HAF vouchers by email or text on Thursday 26 June. You will also be able to start booking activities on that day.

If you need more information or do not receive a voucher, email haf@enfield.gov.uk.

HAF providers

For this summer, we have 28 HAF providers running camps across 42 locations in the borough, including 15 SEND only provisions.

View our summer brochure (PDF, 4965.68 KB), which includes a map of all programmes and a summary of each camp provider.

How to claim your voucher

To book a place for your child at an activity, you will need to be in receipt of a HAF voucher. Enfield schools will issue these vouchers to eligible families who get benefits-related free school meals.

Once vouchers have been issued, you will receive a text or email (or both), from hello@holidayactivities.com to say you have been issued a voucher - check your junk/spam folder.

See more information on how to claim your HAF voucher.

If you do not receive a HAF voucher for your child and they are in receipt of benefits-related free school meals, contact your child's school.

If you have not received your HAF voucher and your child's school is closed due to the school holidays, email haf@enfield.gov.uk.

How to book

Once you have claimed your child’s voucher, you will be able to access the Holiday Activities booking site to view all available and suitable activities for your child’s age.

Each child will have credits on their vouchers which are used to book activities. The number of credits given depends on the holiday period. For example, for the winter and Easter programmes, there will be 4 credits available, and for the summer programme, there will be 16 credits available.

See more information on how to book an activity.

Cancel a booking

If your child cannot attend a booked session, you should cancel your booking as soon as possible so that another child can be offered the place.

Once you have requested cancellation, the holiday camp will be notified to approve or decline the cancellation request. Once the cancellation has been approved, you will be notified by email and the credits used for the booking will be returned to your child’s voucher to allow you to book another activity.

Providers have the right to remove all future bookings if there is non-attendance of more than 2 consecutive days or if you have not confirmed your cancellation with the provider. We cannot guarantee that HAF vouchers will be reimbursed if bookings are cancelled late.

See more information on how to cancel a booking.

Advice and support

If you're a parent or carer, you can find advice and support. There is help with the cost of living and information about local community hubs, skills employment training, local food pantry and much more:

• Cost of living support
• Community hubs
• Food pantries
• Benefits and money advice
• Health and wellbeingWorrying About Money? - Enfield
• The Felix Project

Access free online emotional health and wellbeing courses for all parents, carers, grandparents and teens at inourplace.

Kooth is a self-referral service digital mental health platform which can be accessed by young people in Enfield aged 10 to 25 online and also adults until 10pm every single day of the year – sign up to Kooth.

There is also advice and support from our neighbouring borough services Barnet, Haringey and Hertfordshire:

• Early help for children, young people and families
• Getting Advice and Signposting - THRIVE Framework
• Individuals and families - giving page

Parent and carer guides

If you're a parent or carer and are struggling with the Holiday Activities booking site, you can visit Holiday Activities – parent guides for help with things such as, managing bookings and linking multiple vouchers to one account.