{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]],"date-time":"2026-03-14T10:14:28Z","timestamp":1773483268763,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,29]],"date-time":"2025-01-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1738108800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>The school holidays can be a challenging time for many families especially for those reliant on free school meals. The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme aims to provide disadvantaged families across England with healthy meals and enriching activities for children and young people. The clubs are usually in the form of a network of independent clubs and often depends on local partnerships and connections, such as the voluntary, community, social and enterprise sectors. In 2023 Southwark Council, interested in building on the findings of a national evaluation and providing more context specific insights relating to access to and use of their clubs, approached the Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams scheme to collaborate in a service provision evaluation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>As part of the wider evaluation, a qualitative study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents\/carers of HAF eligible children and semi-structured interviews\/focus groups were held with children and young people (CYP) attending a HAF club. Recruitment was through the clubs. The transcripts were coded by two independent researchers and thematic analysis applied.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Nine parent\/carers and two young people took part in an interview. Six discussion groups with 4\u20136 young people in each took place. Most participants heard about the club they attended through word of mouth from friends and family, through the child\u2019s school or by seeing a flyer\/newsletter advert. Many participants were unaware of the variety and number of different clubs available to families. Finding out about the clubs online was reported to be time-consuming and websites not user-friendly. Parents\/carers spoke of the frustration in trying to navigate booking systems. There was also a lack of awareness of the types of other support\/signposting available from clubs.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>The evaluation highlighted the low-level of family awareness of all available HAF activities across the borough. Furthermore, navigating the system was reported as challenging. Southwark Council reviewed and revised its online provision to create a centralised repository accessible to families that aimed to improve awareness and ease the club booking process. Further work is required to improve signposting to support services and provision for parents\/carers.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1494180","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,29]],"date-time":"2025-01-29T06:52:13Z","timestamp":1738133533000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["How do families access holiday activities and food programmes and other support? Learnings from the Borough of Southwark holiday activities and food club\u2019s evaluation"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Lorraine","family":"McSweeney","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anita","family":"Sewornu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Louis","family":"Goffe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bronia","family":"Arnott","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ashley","family":"Adamson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","year":""},{"key":"ref2","volume-title":"Evaluation of the 2021 holiday activities and food programme: research report","author":"Cox","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref3","article-title":"Holiday hunger: the government must remove the inequalities in children\u2019s access to holiday clubs","author":"Defeyter","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMJ"},{"key":"ref4","volume-title":"Who is experiencing food insecurity in the UK?","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref5","volume-title":"Food poverty: households, food banks and free school meals","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref6","volume-title":"Guidance: holiday activities and food programme 2022","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref7","volume-title":"Apply for free school meals","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"954679","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2022.954679","article-title":"Understanding the implementation of the holiday activities and food programme in the North East of England using normalization process theory","volume":"10","author":"Defeyter","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref9","volume-title":"An evaluation of Northumberland County Council\u2019s holiday activities and food Progamme (HAF) 2023","author":"Defeyter","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1093\/eurpub\/ckv219","article-title":"Why are poorer children at higher risk of obesity and overweight? A UK cohort study","volume":"26","author":"Goisis","year":"2015","journal-title":"Eur J Pub Health"},{"key":"ref11","volume-title":"Holiday activities and food programme 2023 (updated 11 March 2024)","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref12","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref13","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref14","article-title":"NIHR135396 an evaluation of Southwark Council\u2019s summer 2022 holiday activities and food programme. Protocol version 2","author":"Adamson","year":"2022","journal-title":"NIHR J Library"},{"key":"ref15","volume-title":"NVivo","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref16","volume-title":"Thematic analysis a practical guide","author":"Braun","year":"2021"},{"key":"ref17","volume-title":"National curriculum in England: framwork for key stages 1 to 4","year":"2014"},{"key":"ref18","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref19","volume-title":"Bring it on brum 2021: an impact and embedded process evaluation of Birmingham\u2019s HAF programme","author":"Defeyter","year":"2021"},{"key":"ref20","volume-title":"Evaluation report \u2013 Holiday activities and food Programme 2022 - Northamptonshire","author":"Bayes","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"912455","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2022.912455","article-title":"A mixed-method process evaluation of an east midlands county summer 2021 holiday activities and food programme highlighting the views of programme co-ordinators, providers, and parents","volume":"10","author":"Stringer","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref22","volume-title":"MedwayGo annual report 2023\/24","author":"Paz","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref23","volume-title":"Holiday activities and food annual report 2023","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref24","volume-title":"Guidance: Holiday activities and food programme 2023","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref25","volume-title":"Evaluation of the 2019 holiday activities and food programme","author":"Campbell-Jack","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"330","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1365-2524.2005.00562.x","article-title":"Parenting support in the context of poverty: a meta-synthesis of the qualitative evidence","volume":"13","author":"Attree","year":"2005","journal-title":"Health Soc Care Commun"},{"key":"ref27","year":"2024"},{"key":"ref28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1177\/0002716220917657","article-title":"Holiday clubs as community organizations","volume":"689","author":"Stretesky","year":"2020","journal-title":"Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1494180\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,29]],"date-time":"2025-01-29T06:52:20Z","timestamp":1738133540000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1494180\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,29]]},"references-count":28,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1494180"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1494180","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,29]]},"article-number":"1494180"}}