Issue details

Summary

This report will provide details of proposals for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme which is funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and aims to provide Free School Meal (FSM) eligible children with food and activities over the 2021 Spring, Summer, and Winter holidays, to which the Leader’s approval under urgency provisions, is sought.

The Chief Executive will also be asked to use separate non-executive urgency provisions to add the schemes to the Council’s Revenue Budget. The use of these urgency provisions will be reported to Full Council on 22 April 2021 for information.

Access to Information

The report together with any other documents being considered (unless they contain exempt information) would ordinarily be available for inspection 5 clear days before the decision is taken by the Cabinet. Copies are available on the Council's website or requested from Democratic Services Medway Council, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TR or email democratic.services@medway.gov.uk. If you wish to submit information to the Cabinet about the item please also contact Democratic Services.

On this occasion it has not been possible to provide 28 clear days’ notice, nor 5 clear days’ notice, therefore Section 11 (Cases of special urgency) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements)(Meetings and Access to Information)(England) Regulations 2012 and Rule 17 (Special urgency) of the Council’s Access to Information Rules, as set out in the Constitution, have been complied with. The Chairman of the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed that the taking of these decisions are urgent and cannot be reasonably deferred until the next Cabinet meeting on 2 March 2021. This is because it is imperative that the Council takes urgent action to support individuals and families in Medway in line with the Government’s announcement to implement ‘The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme’ by 1 of April 2021 in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. A number of actions must take place ahead of 1 April 2021 for this service to be in place by the deadline, including fully developing the local response, recruitment, procurement and engagement. This must commence before the next scheduled Cabinet meeting.