To note the contents of the report.

Lin Ferguson introduced the item and explained that a national holiday activity programme, previously only available to particular local authority areas, was rolled out across all local authorities in 2020. The aim of the programme was to provide food and enrichment activities to children aged 5-16 who were in receipt of free school meals, and should run for six weeks of the year during school holidays. In the Royal Borough the programme had been renamed FUEL by the young people taking part. Lin Ferguson introduced Danny Gomm, Family Hub Manager, who had led the arrangements for the FUEL programme and invited him to explain to Members how the scheme had worked.

Danny Gomm said it was the first time a programme like this had been run in the Royal Borough and at the outset staff had not realised the enormity of the task of making all of the arrangements. However it had been very successful and this had been proven by the positive feedback that had been received. Danny Gomm said he and Chris Caughey had led on delivering the programme. Although a lot of programmes were delivered successfully, even more could have been done had there been more time to prepare. The initial remit had been to provide activities for four hours a day, four days a week, over four weeks. However the decision was taken to run some activities over all five days of the week and some were extended into a fifth week. Many ended up being fully booked. Providers had to be sought who would be able to provide food for the sessions and Danny Gomm highlighted Windsor Christian Action as being particularly helpful in arranging food provision. He also highlighted that Datchet Parish Council had given free use of the parish hall for FUEL activities. Arrangements also had to be made to transport children to the activity sites, rather than expect them to make their own way there. Staff had assessed where children in receipt of free school meals lived so it could be ascertained which locations would be best suited to host activities, and consideration was also given to the appropriateness of age ranges of activities so families with more than one child wouldn’t have their children in different locations. The Panel was told that four sessions were put on for children with special educational needs and three more for children with low self esteem, as this had been identified as a particular need. Danny Gomm said three 17-year-olds had been identified as FUEL providers who would assist with delivering activities after an interview and recruitment process. They had all been extremely helpful and one of them had since expressed a desire to train as a social worker.

The only negative aspect had been some sessions became fully booked but some families then failed to show up, despite reminder phone calls the previous day. Danny Gomm said there had not been any repeat offenders, but one way of trying to prevent it happening in future could be that if families continually failed to turn up after booking an activity they would be told they would not be able to attend any more in future. Other local authorities had a strict ‘one strike and you’re out’ policy to prevent no-shows. Responding to a question from Councillor Hunt, Danny Gomm said schools would be contacted as they could help identify children and families who might want to attend the FUEL sessions but were not in receipt of free school meals, such as pupil premium children and those in care.

Danny Gomm said a government spending review was due to take place to see if funding could be allocated to run the programme again next year. He said staff now had an idea of who the better service providers were, who could assist in setting up any future programmes, and with more prior notice it would be possible to get information out to schools in a more timely manner.

Councillor Bateson said although there were many families who were eligible for the programme, some may not end up taking part as they were too proud to ask. Danny Gomm said one way round this would be families in receipt of free school meals would be given a code when signing up online, which would flag up to the event provider they were a free school meal family without the need for them to be publicly identified or for anything to be said at the event.

Members congratulated Danny Gomm and the team for the successful delivery of the FUEL programme, saying a lot of work had gone into creating it in such a short period of time.

Members noted the contents of the report.