Leicestershire County Council, working with Active Together (formerly LeicesterShire and Rutland Sport), are coordinating the Department for Education funded Holiday Activities & Food Programme, across Leicestershire.

The Leicestershire HAF Programme is specifically targeted to offer holiday activities to school aged children (5 to 16 years) who are eligible for benefits-related Free School Meals.

Leicestershire County Council will be awarding funding to Leicestershire schools, charities, voluntary and community sector organisations and other out of school and holiday activity organisations to deliver HAF holiday provision for children eligible for benefits-related free school meals during the Easter, Summer and Christmas holiday periods, in line with DfE guidance.

The aim is that the children who attend the provision will be supported:

• to eat more healthily over the school holidays;
• to be more active during the school holidays;
• to take part in engaging and enriching activities;
• to be safe and not to be socially isolated;
• to have greater knowledge of health and nutrition; and
• to be more engaged with school and other local services.

A list of HAF provision over the Easter Holidays in 2025 can be seen on Active Together's website, via the link below:

Leicestershire County Council are using a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) process for awarding contracts to HAF providers.

Tenders must be submitted to gain a place on the DPS and tender rounds will be periodically closed to allow tender submissions to be evaluated and places on the DPS awarded.

Tender opportunities will be published on the East Midlands Tenders Procurement Portal (link below).

Any providers interested in applying must register interest in the opportunity via the link below for the East Midlands E-tendering Portal.

If you are not already registered as a provider on EastMidsTenders, you can complete a simple registration process by clicking on the 'Register free' link below the green button.

If you have any queries, please email: haf@leics.gov.uk

Organisations interested in applying for HAF funding can view a heat map which shows the numbers of free school meals eligible children at each school.

The heat map is available below.

You can find further information about the HAF Programme via the links below.

If you have any questions regarding HAF programme delivery in Leicestershire, please email: haf@leics.gov.uk