HAF programme
Enfield’s holiday activities and food programme (HAF) is fully funded by the Department for Education (DfE). It offers lots of fun ideas for keeping active, being creative and trying something new over the Easter, summer and winter school holidays.
Children and young people who get benefit-related free school meals, can get up to 4 days of free fun and nutritious food during the Easter and winter holidays, and up to 16 days during the summer holidays.
Each day will include a healthy meal, snacks and a selection of activities, ranging from sports and physical activities, food workshops and much more.
The programme covers a minimum of 1 week in the Easter holidays, 1 week in the winter holidays, and 4 weeks in the summer holidays, for a minimum of 4 hours per day, 4 days per week.
HAF annual report
View the Holiday activities and food programme annual report 2023 (PDF, 1661.58 KB).
Eligibility
The HAF programme is for children and young people, from reception to year 11, who get benefits-related free school meals.
Following an announcement made by the Mayor of London, from September 2023 all primary school children in state-funded schools in London will automatically get free school meals for the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
Please be aware, if your primary aged child gets free school meals, this does not make them eligible for the programme, as this is different to benefits-related free school meals. However, your child may also qualify for benefits-related free school meals so we would recommend you apply.
Your child will qualify for the HAF programme if all these statements apply:
- Your child is eligible for benefits-related free school meals
- You live in Enfield, or your child attends school in Enfield
- Your child is in reception to year 11
For information on benefits-related free school meals, eligibility and how to apply, see our free school meals page.
Additional needs
If your child requires 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
Our Winter 2024 HAF Programme will be running from Monday 23 December to Sunday 5 January including weekends but excluding Christmas day, Boxing day and New years day.
HAF vouchers will be sent out to parents and carers of all eligible children and young people via email or text on Wednesday 27 November. Bookings for activities will also go live on this day.
For more information (or if you do not receive a HAF voucher for your child), contact us via haf@enfield.gov.uk.
HAF providers
For this winter, we have 26 HAF providers running camps across the borough of Enfield. Some of our HAF providers will be running SEND only camps. These will be stated next to those providers.
Below is a map of our activity providers that will be running across the borough.
In our winter brochure, the numbers on the map below represent each provider's page within the brochure. The pages are numbered on the top right of the page and they detail activity camp information. The information includes, the number of places per day, the dates the camp will be running, a brief of activities that will be on offer, contact details, age range and booking site help guides.
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 and food pantry
- Benefits and money advice
- Health and wellbeing
- Worrying 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:
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.