The Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) in Oldham this summer has 43 providers delivering activities across the borough – a total of 2730 funded places on offer for Oldham’s children and young people. Each attendee gets at least 4 hours of activity each day with a hot healthy meal (or a meal of equal nutritional value) available at each session.

These sessions are free to families receiving free school meals and, if there are spaces available, to others for a small fee.

Local ward Councillors also provide activities for children using their Councillor budgets to support families – for example, in Royton there are free sessions every weekday through the summer holidays in one of Royton’s Parks (Royton Park, Dogford Park, Tandle Hill Park and Bullcote Park) run by Oldham Play Action Group (OPAG) and paid for by Royton’s Councillors. OPAG also ran a well attended session for National Play Day in Royton Park on the 3rd August.

At a recent HAF funded day at Stoneleigh Park 230 children had good quality lunches and top up funding from the One Oldham Fund and the Friends of Stoneleigh Park ensured that everyone coming along – including under 5s – got lunch and water.

Councillor Angela Cosgrove said ‘it was great to see so many children and families at Stoneleigh Park and to know that they had a good time as well as a healthy lunch. Everyone I spoke to had really enjoyed the day.’

Cllr Abdul Jabbar MBE, Cabinet Member for Finance said: “We offer as much support as we can for families in the summer holidays. It’s a real shame that Government changed the rules so we couldn’t offer vouchers for the same amount as previous years, but we feel our scheme offered the best value overall within the options available to us. We are proud that we have put on lots of free activities and good quality meals for families entitled to free school meals to help out. Many Labour Councillors also use their local budgets to put on free activities open to everyone.

“Our Oldham Helpline is there to help you on 0161 770 7007 or visit our website (oldham.gov.uk) to find out about the huge range of help and support the Council offers – so please get in touch if you are finding things difficult at the moment.”