Parent and Carer Alliance CIC are proud to announce that we have been awarded the Gloucestershire County Council HAF (Holiday and Food) Programme Specialist SEND Community Connector role. The aim of taking on this role is to improve the HAF programme for SEND families, and to deliver more inclusive and accessible provision through improvements to HAF provider training programmes and to the resources used by the families and providers. The improvements needed will take some time but we are excited for the challenge ahead!
The feedback provided by the Specialist Community Connector will be used to inform the redesign of any new Gloucestershire HAF programme. We will also be able to book families on to the summer and winter activity sessions.
The HAF programme provision and activities are inclusive of all children and young people, including those who may have a disability or who have Special Educational Needs. The focus for HAF is that children and young people:
- Be safe and not to be socially isolated
- Have a greater knowledge of health and nutrition
- Be more engaged with school and other local services.
We see our role as supporting providers to understand the challenges, to find ways to overcome the barriers and to increase accessibility.
HOW IS THIS TO BE ACHIEVED
Through consultation with parent carers, gathering their experiences and opinions to enable the review of
- Current soft launch arrangements
- All About Me and All About Us forms and processes
- Provider accessibility and inclusivity training sessions
- The evaluation form questions
- The session programme and evaluations.
- Data from Spring HAF – including parent and family feedback questions
- Previous GCC survey findings and questionnaires and
- Dietary requirements vouchers
This will also be achieved by attending and providing input into relevant meetings to raise the understanding
of the barriers that families face, provide any ideas for future activities and
- Feedback to HAF team, District Leads and Community Connector’s
- Feedback on gaps / opportunities for summer, advising providers on accessibility.
- Advise providers during the run up to summer and winter HAF
- Support with data analysis and understanding how to support parents to access
and improve accessibility. - Develop surveys for the summer, and
- Support the design / specification of a new data base for a future programme
HAF ACTIVITY DAY 22ND AUGUST 2024 11AM TO 3 PM
We are inviting our HAF families across the 6 districts of Gloucestershire to join us at the King’s School, Pitt Street, Gloucester GL1 2BG to celebrate all things HAF this summer, and we have 50 FREE tickets!! First come, first served!.
This is an open-air family activity where we have gathered some of our fabulous HAF activity providers to deliver a day of fun and food in the sun. Attractions include a petting zoo, mini golf, henna, face painting, a climbing wall, arts & crafts, music creation, sports activities and much, much more!
The Eat Well Wagon will be joining us at the event, with a pop up make-your-own sandwich wrap bar with a variety of fillings. Gluten-free and vegan options will be available on the day, and we will also have a variety of fruit to snack on throughout the day. We are encouraging all of our families to bring reusable water bottles with them. Water points will be available to refill bottles on sight.
Information about accessibility for SEND families:
The event will be taking place outdoors, in case of poor weather we have organised an indoor space for use. It will be a loud and busy environment due to the amount of activities taking place and people attending. There will be a quieter area available for families that may need it. King’s School is a fully-accessible building that includes disabled parking. We will have an accessible mobile toilet that includes a hoist.
If you have any queries regarding the location, age range, activity or food please do not hesitate to contact the organisers at HAFparentenquiries@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Request an ACTIVITY DAY ticket
Please note that in order to attend this event in Gloucester, you must have a ticket. To obtain a ticket please email HAF@parentandcareralliance.org.uk and provide full names for all family members, dates of birth and school name of children, ethnicity, if on benefits, and if SEN, if disabled. We also require consent to share.
(HAF) PROGRAMME ALTERNATIVE FOOD PROVISION SUMMER 2024
Parent and Carer Alliance CIC has obtained funding to provide alternative food provision for sessions provided by the Gloucestershire Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme where the planned food provision is not suitable.
This project is limited by the funding provided and is for this summer only.
Please complete this form, in as much detail as possible, to share your child’s need for alternative food and one of our Advisers will be in touch as soon as possible.
BE INVOLVED IN THE IMPROVEMENT PROCESS
As always, we are looking for the experiences of our membership for gathering experiences and making recommendations for improvements. Please help us by completing this form – you can help make a positive difference.
CONTACT US
If you’d like to know about our work in this role, or have any comments or recommendations for improvements please contact us at HAF@parentandcareralliance.org.uk