Thousands of children and families across Swindon will be offered access to food, fuel vouchers and free activities during the Easter period, as part of two schemes facilitated by Swindon Borough Council.
In total the Council has been awarded £1.5m by the Government to support families in need, as part of both the Holiday Food and Activities Programme and the COVID Winter Grant Scheme.
Around 4,500 children in Swindon will be eligible for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme during the Easter holidays and over the summer and Christmas holidays, which will provide free access to healthy food and fun and meaningful activities.
The programme, which is optional to local children, will be available for four hours per day, over four days of the Easter period.
Children will be offered a healthy, substantial meal, and activities will take place at Ofsted-registered holiday providers, who are already established in Swindon, with more clubs expected to join during the summer and Christmas holidays.
Eligible children must receive benefits-related free school meals. To apply, parents and guardians of eligible children will need to apply via the application form on the Council website HERE
Parents will then receive an email confirmation of their eligibility, to either take to their chosen provider or be provided with details of how to contact the Council for support with accessing a place.
Over the coming weeks, the Council will be working closely with schools to ensure those eligible are able to take part in the programme.
In addition to the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, thousands more families will be eligible to receive supermarket and fuel vouchers, through the COVID Winter Grant Scheme.
Over the Christmas and February half-term holidays, more than 16,000 supermarket vouchers were distributed to eligible residents in Swindon, with the scheme now extended to cover Easter.
Eligible residents will receive a £30 supermarket voucher to cover the two-week holiday period, the week beginning 29 March.
The majority of those eligible to receive supermarket vouchers will be children who are entitled to free school meals during term time. Children in receipt of two-year-old funding and those eligible for the pupil premium aged three and four will also benefit from the support.
Parents or carers of these eligible children do not need to apply to receive the vouchers. Instead, the distribution of these vouchers will be organised by individual education settings.
Those eligible to receive fuel vouchers will be those who receive Council Tax support and will either receive a £25 voucher if they are a household with no children or a £40 voucher for households with children.
Again, residents eligible for these vouchers do not need to apply, as these families will be directly contacted by the Council.
Councillor Russell Holland, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Commercialisation, Education and Skills, said: “This Government funding is very much welcomed to provide help for families who may be facing financial pressures over the holidays. I am therefore delighted that we are going to be providing support to these valuable schemes which will provide support to eligible families and children in Swindon over Easter.
“This builds on the work over both the Christmas holidays and February half-term and I am very pleased we are able to help.”
