Proposed Decision:
Cabinet Member for Education and Skills to;
1. Approve the proposed HAF delivery model and commissioning approach from 2025.
2. Commence formal procurement activity to tender for a service, award a contract(s) (three years, with a 12 month break clause) and develop robust contract management for oversight of the contract(s) performance.
3. Confirm that in accordance with Decision 23/00009 that Corporate Director Children, Young People and Education accept Future allocations of the Holiday Activity and Food Grant for use in accordance with the grant determination letter which will be issued by the Department for Education and the relevant terms and conditions, provided these remain substantially the same as the current; and to delegate authority to the Director of Education and SEN to manage and deploy the accepted Holiday Activity and Food Grant in accordance with the grant conditions and arrangements detailed in the report, including entering into contracts through a compliant procurement route and have a team in place to roll out the HAF Programme from 2025-2026 and beyond.
4. Delegate authority to the Director of Education and SEN, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, to take other necessary actions, including but not limited to entering into contracts, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or other legal agreements, as required to implement the decision.
Reason for the Decision:
If KCC wishes to make use of the DfE Grant for Holiday Activity Fund Services, a key decision is required to confirm the delivery model and commissioning approach. This will determine the policy approach, confirming how KCC intends to deliver against the DfE requirements. The decision will also provide authority to enter into relevant contracts.
· Total value of contract exceeds £1m and impacts across more than two electoral divisions.
Background:
The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme in Kent focusses on children’s physical health and wellbeing by providing healthy food and exciting activities for children and young people during the school holidays. Families of children aged four to 16 years, who are in receipt of benefits-related free school meals, can access free opportunities during the Easter, summer, and Christmas holidays. This programme is funded by the Department for Education (DfE), accompanied by grant conditions.
Since 2021 The Education People (TEP) have been commissioned through an “additional works request” to manage the HAF programme. CYPE have been exploring opportunities regarding a move towards a more long-term provision for HAF and how this may look from June 2025 and beyond, should the funding continue.
Soft Market Engagement has been conducted to seek the best possible solution for procuring a new HAF service. In addition, extensive engagement with young people and schools has been undertaken, to gather their views, ideas and suggestions regarding HAF delivery and activities.
What is being proposed?
As part of soft Market Engagement, a variety of options were explored with a focus on maximising delivery for those young people with SEND, aged 11+ and those with low school attendance. The options considered were:
The proposed decision is Option 3 - to develop a light touch DPS or a similar compliant contract route. This will allow targeting of areas that have not had take-up while the soft lotting will support smaller grassroots organisations to apply for more localised provision. Previous experience has proven this to be successful. Both the procured and internal activity will focus on providing school holiday activities and food for children and young people eligible for the HAF scheme. Additionally, it is proposed to create a HAF Programme Team within KCC, carrying out the non-procurement activity.
Decision type: Key
Reason Key: Expenditure or savings of more than £1m;
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Division affected: (All Division);
Notice of proposed decision first published: 23/08/2024
Decision due: Not before 23rd Sep 2024 by Cabinet Member for Education and Skills
Reason: To comply with the minimum 28 day FED period required by Executive arrangements
Lead member: Cabinet Member for Education and Skills
Department: Education & Young People's Services
Contact: Christy Holden, Assistant Director for CYPE Commissioning.
Consultation process
Children, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee considered and endorsed this decision at its meeting on 24 September 2024.
Consultees
Children, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee 24 September 2024.
Financial implications: HAF funding is received via grant from the DfE. The funding is yet to be confirmed for 2025-2026, and assuming the level moving forward remains as 2024-2025, this would be £5,604,960 per annum. All expenditure including management and delivery costs will need to be met from this grant. There is no expectation this programme will be a cost to the General Fund and associated management and delivery costs will be funded in accordance with the grant conditions. This proposal complies with Spending the Council’s Money requirements. In accordance with the Cabinet decision to support the recommendations in the paper Securing Kent’s Future on 5 October 2023, the approach set out makes sure that, in line with Objective 2 (Delivering savings from identified opportunity areas to set a sustainable 2024-2025 budget and MTFP), any future procurement does not over specify need, ensuring best value for the Local Authority. Spend will be limited to the total value of the grant funding received.
Legal implications: Legal Implications: All expenditure will be audited by the DfE to ensure compliance with the DfE grant conditions. The move away from the current grants process will enable greater clarity over provision and data. This is primarily due to the legal standing of grants and how they can be administered versus those of a contract. There is no contractual obligation on KCC to continue to commission TEP to deliver HAF beyond 2024. However, assuming HAF continues, it will not be possible to move to the proposed delivery model in time for delivering HAF provision for Easter 2025, as the planning for this starts immediately after Christmas. KCC will need to commission TEP to continue to manage HAF for this delivery point and move to the proposed model for summer 2025. There may be TUPE implications in creating an internal HAF Programme Team. Further HR, Legal and finance advice will be taken on this if the proposal proceeds.
Equalities implications: Equalities implications An Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) screening has been completed, there are no individual groups that are significantly more impacted by this change and individuals with protected characteristics will continue to be supported through the HAF Programme.