Information for Parents
At the beginning of 2021 the government announced the expansion of the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme across the whole of England. Funds were made available to every local authority in England to coordinate free holiday provisions, including healthy food and enriching activities.
The aim of HAF is to make free places available to children aged 5-16 who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals during the Easter, Summer and Winter Holidays. In Dudley we have worked with parents, children, young people and schools to ask what they want and need from HAF.
To register a Child for HAF, you must first create a Family account. This will enable you to manage all your bookings in one place.
If you are already registered for a Family account, click here to Login. To book an activity, click on the event you wish to attend and enter your unique HAF number as follows: HAF123456789 (example).
You will receive your HAF number via email once a Child is registered. Please ensure you enter correctly including the letters HAF (caps).
Am I Eligible for HAF?
- Your child lives or goes to school in the Dudley Borough
- Your child is aged 5 -16 years old
- You are eligible to benefits related free school meals
We have a number of social media platforms for you to stay connected so please do give us a follow, like and share!
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@dudleycvs.org.uk
We are using a central registration process to make it easier for you to book your child onto activities, which means you only have to provide your information once. If you have already registered your child in you do not need to register them again.
We will share your child’s information with the provider of any activities that your child takes part in. This is to make sure that the provider can effectively deliver their activities. Once you have registered your child we will only share your child’s personal information with the providers who deliver activities as part of this programme and only for the purpose of delivering the programme.
On the 3rd July 2023 at 5pm, booking the programme activities will be open. You will receive a unique HAF code that enables you to book sessions of activities per eligible child throughout the holidays. This is a unique code to be used for your children only. Codes will be monitored by activity providers. We cannot guarantee that you will get all sessions you want, as sessions are allocated on a first come, first serve basis.
Once activities are booked you should receive a confirmation email. The booking system now includes the option to withdraw from an activity should circumstances change, and you cannot attend the activity. Please use this facility if needed so another family can book the activity.
We process data in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Information will be stored and processed securely on our database system. All data will be held locally or on UK/EU data centres. A full copy our Data Policy and how your data is stored and used can be found at:
HAF Privacy Statement
If you get any of the following support payments your child may be entitled to receive free school meals:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit Run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit (you must have less than £616.67 a month net earned income (after tax – and not including any benefits)
To apply visit: Free School Meals | Dudley Council