HAF Annual Report 2024/25

Buckinghamshire’s mainstream HAF clubs offer a range of enriching activities that give the children and young people accessing them the chance to develop new skills, make new friends, become more physically active and create new memories.

Activities on offer include:

• street dance
• drama
• cooking
• coding
• sports
• outdoor adventure activities

Some HAF providers also organised trips as part of their offer with each trip offering unique experiences that allow children and young people to build their cultural capital. These trips included:

• football stadium tours
• museum visits
• trips to the cinema
• escape rooms
• pantomimes
• Legoland
• rock climbing
• local farms
• zoo's
• community stream cleaning
• trips to the seaside

Buckinghamshire’s specialist SEND HAF clubs allow for children and young people with special educational needs and/or a disability with more complex needs to also benefit from holiday activities.

Our mainstream HAF clubs are also committed to supporting children and young people with SEND and where possible. They make necessary adjustments to their provision to enable those with SEND to participate in and benefit from the activities they offer. This is achieved through a combination of inclusive practice and financial assistance from the HAF Programme to enable appropriate staffing ratios on site

Across the three delivery years from 2022/23 to 2024/25, the number of SEND places on offer to eligible children and young people has grown by 82%. 1,218 places were offered in 2022/23 compared to 2,221 in 2024/25.

This increase is a result of work conducted in collaboration with several local organisations to encourage and enable them to grow their existing SEND offers and explore new opportunities to develop new offers for eligible children and young people with SEND to access.

Alongside the number of SEND places on offer growing, the number of locations offering SEND places has also grown. It has grown from 8 locations in 2023/24 to 14 locations in 2024/25. This creates a wider geographical coverage, resulting in 929 individual children and young people with SEND accessing the programme this year. Making up 26% of the total cohort.

The HAF programme have also continued to work with Thomley (A SEND provider) to offer overnight camping stays for families of children and young people with SEND. During 2024, 36 eligible families enjoyed stays in specially adapted camping pods. This allowed them to enjoy activities during the day and have a family BBQ in the evening before staying the night and eating a healthy breakfast together. Alongside their overnight camping stays, Thomley also offered a ‘Breakfast with Santa’ event at Christmas. This was very well received.