Bosses are working to improve a system which is frustrating parents as they try to book on to a programme offering food and activities to hundreds of children.
The Holidays Are Fun (HAF) programme has been praised for improving young people’s mental health, keeping children entertained, teaching them skills and helping their families with free meals and activities during all school holidays. Its leaders are looking for a better booking system as snags were highlighted in the current one, which is deemed “not fit for purpose”.
The activities are for children receiving benefits-related free school meals, living in deprived wards, with working parents receiving universal credit or in financial difficulty, and other vulnerable children. Sports, martial arts, cooking, costume and set design, first aid, money management and mental health are among the subjects in a programme funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and Public Health, run through Stockton Council and the charity Catalyst, working with 31 current providers.
Catalyst CEO Lucy Owens said predominantly primary schoolchildren came to the sessions but they were targeting secondary-age young people with activities with Billingham Boxing Club and Tees Active. There were also more sessions for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), along with training sessions and one-to-one support funding for children with complex needs, as they worked to promote the programme, identify community groups for sessions and encourage new providers.
She said during a wide-ranging discussion at the council’s children and young people select committee: “It’s always very difficult working out how best to take bookings for things like this. Some people prefer one way, some people prefer another.
“The booking system does require some basic IT skills, and while it is simple to use… if people do have that specific barrier it can prove a barrier to them accessing. Feedback tells us that it can be time-consuming and it’s not always as user-friendly as it could be. That’s the eternal challenge, to be fair, but it’s something we acknowledge and we accept.”
Mandie Rowlands, Stockton Council’s service lead for school support and sufficiency, said of the booking system: “That has proved continuously a challenge.” She said it had piggybacked on the system to book tip runs, though it was “a bit more sophisticated”.
‘Time-consuming and frustrating’
She added: “We are looking for a system moving forward because the current one is not fit for purpose. We have started that market engagement process.”
She said the system could work well when filters were used for families to find the right activities: “We are currently continuously reviewing and revising the customer journey and it’s really important to us. The frustration from our customers is the booking system nine times out of 10.
“Sometimes the parents have not got the literacy to follow through on an IT system. We cannot book multiple activities at once, it’s time-consuming and frustrating.
“The layout of the booking system is not user-friendly, the parents can’t see a list of providers easily and the functionality is limited. What it doesn’t do is allow them to have one account and it remembers their children, which would be much easier.
‘Amazing provision’
“We do action as much as we can within the limitations of the system. Digital services work really really well to enhance that system… We need to take exactly what we need, our wishlist, to a provider that’s able to give us the system that our customers will be able to use.”
She said SEND places were taken quickly on the programme: “It is something of a growth area. It is something we probably need to put on our action plan moving forward.”
Councillor Clare Besford, Catalyst community project manager, spoke of HAF’s links and benefits inside and outside holidays, from cooking classes, life skills to stage experience and meeting the Six cast at the Globe theatre. She said: “There’s some really amazing provision in terms of what we’re able to offer to residents across Stockton.
“We’ve got a really good understanding of how we best work together to make sure we’re delivering for children right across Stockton.”
‘Very difficult’
At a later executive scrutiny committee meeting, Cllr Lynn Hall raised the issue of the booking system: “It’s very difficult, we’re told, to actually register more than one child at a time. The frustration it causes within families is really quite difficult.
“Although we’ve got certain children on free school meals, we have other children in the same family who may not be. We shouldn’t just be rationing it so to speak, particularly when we have blended families who need it more than most.”
Cllr Hall asked about attendance figures, adding: “We’re doing something wrong… A lot of it’s to do with the registration of the youngsters.
“That’s what residents are telling me in my own patch. They’re telling me it’s impossible to get on there, you can’t get more than one kid.
“It’s very important that we know exactly what actions are being done so we have those clear action plans, they’re laid out so that we’re not letting down the young people in our borough.”
Stockton Labour councillor Carol Clark, who represents the Grangefield ward
(Image: Terry Blackburn)
“We’re not,” replied Cllr Carol Clark, chair of the children and young people select committee. “We’re not letting down these children because we are working extremely hard and some of the questions that came up identified all the problems you’re saying about managing to get through to put your children on the list.
“All sorts of ideas have been thought about. Yes, I would like to see a lot more children being able to take part.
“We’re doing everything we can and we’re not just sitting there. We’re asking and we’re getting information because we want the best for our kids.”
She said work was going on in schools: “I would like to see a lot more children, and yes, maybe some time in the future we will be able to let all children take part in all activities. At the end of the day, I’ve been going on for years and years about children having free school meals so what happens to them in the holidays because they’re not going to get that free school meal.
“Now this is something even better, where not only are they having their meals through the holiday, they’re also having activities which they probably would never have a chance to do themselves.”
Teesside Live is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.
Through the app, we’ll send you the latest breaking news, top stories, exclusives and much more straight to your phone.
To join our community group, you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select ‘Join Community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Teesside Live team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Click here to join our WhatsApp community.
For the latest Stockton news direct to your inbox, go here to sign up to our free newsletter