Agenda item

(time limit 20 minutes)

Holiday Activities and Food sessions provide the 13,000 young people in Oldham who access free school meals a warm meal and fun activities during the school holidays.  However, the cost of living crisis is a national problem for all households in the UK.  Obviously, this crisis is impacting those who can claim free school meals but many others earning less than the National median of £31,000 will begin to struggle with the rise in cost of energy, fuel, and food.  Indeed, research carried out by Loughborough University for the End Child Poverty coalition, showed 39.3% of children in Oldham were living below the poverty line in 2020/21. This figure would show that many more than those identified as eligible for free school meals require help during holiday times. 

Celebrities such as Marcus Ratchford and Jamie Oliver are also supporting campaigns that would like to see an increase in the numbers of young people eligible for free school meals by a further 800,000.  This increase is to support all young people living in households that claim universal credit not just those who household income is less than £7,400.

A major barrier to accessing the HAF sessions is the stigma.  If sessions are only accessed by those on free school meals, it identifies those young people as some of the poorest families in the town.

Holiday sessions also help with young people’s mental health.  Worries about jobs, the cost of living crisis and COVID recovery, more than ever all young people need support with their mental health.  The HAF sessions tick all boxes for the 5 ways to wellbeing; sessions allow young people to connect with others, allow them to be physically active, allow then to learn new skills, to participate in social and community life and to help to them take notice, savouring ‘the moment’.  In allowing all young people to access the HAF sessions we feel the value for money not only comes in feeding those who need it but also tackles mental health issues as well as providing young people with access to informal learning opportunities that help them develop skills for life.

In summary, while we applaud the HAF programmes aims and its ambition to support children and young people who need it most, we feel that given the current crisis around cost of living the programme doesn’t go far enough. Opening the Holiday Activities and Food programme to all young people will reach more vulnerable families, people who need support but perhaps not quite eligible. It will be an effective and quick way for the government to support more families with the cost-of-living crisis.

We propose that Oldham Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to write to the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP; The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP, Secretary of State for Education; The Rt Hon Bridget Philipson MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and to our Oldham Members of Parliament; the Rt Hon Jim McMahon MP, the Rt Hon Debbie Abrahams MP and the Rt Hon Angela Raynor MP to ask them to lobby parliament to extend the offer of the Holiday Activities and Food programme to all young people not just those on free school meals to support all those impacted by the current cost of living crisis.

The Youth Council PROPOSED the following MOTION:

Holiday Activities and Food Sessions

Holiday Activities and Food sessions provide the 13,000 young people in Oldham who access free school meals a warm meal and fun activities during the school holidays.  However, the cost-of-living crisis is a national problem for all households in the UK.  Obviously, this crisis is impacting those who can claim free school meals but many others earning less than the National median of £31,000 will begin to struggle with the rise in cost of energy, fuel, and food.  Indeed, research carried out by Loughborough University for the End Child Poverty coalition, showed 39.3% of children in Oldham were living below the poverty line in 2020/21. This figure would show that many more than those identified as eligible for free school meals require help during holiday times. 

Celebrities such as Marcus Rashford and Jamie Oliver are also supporting campaigns that would like to see an increase in the numbers of young people eligible for free school meals by a further 800,000.  This increase is to support all young people living in households that claim universal credit not just those who household income is less than £7,400.

A major barrier to accessing the HAF sessions is stigma.  If sessions are only accessed by those on free school meals, it identifies those young people as some of the poorest families in the town.

Holiday sessions also help with young people’s mental health.  Worries about jobs, the cost-of-living crisis and COVID recovery, more than ever all young people need support with their mental health.  The HAF sessions tick all boxes for the 5 ways to wellbeing; sessions allow young people to connect with others, allow them to be physically active, allow then to learn new skills, to participate in social and community life and to help to them take notice, savouring ‘the moment’.  In allowing all young people to access the HAF sessions we feel the value for money not only comes in feeding those who need it but also tackles mental health issues as well as providing young people with access to informal learning opportunities that help them develop skills for life.

In summary, while we applaud the HAF programmes aims and its ambition to support children and young people who need it most, we feel that given the current crisis around cost of living the programme doesn’t go far enough. Opening the Holiday Activities and Food programme to all young people will reach more vulnerable families, people who need support but perhaps not quite eligible. It will be an effective and quick way for the government to support more families with the cost-of-living crisis.

We propose that Oldham Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to write to the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP; The Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP, Secretary of State for Education; The Rt Hon Bridget Philipson MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and to our Oldham Members of Parliament; the Rt Hon Jim McMahon MP, the Rt Hon Debbie Abrahams MP and the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP to ask them to lobby parliament to extend the offer of the Holiday Activities and Food programme to all young people not just those on free school meals to support all those impacted by the current cost of living crisis.

Councillor Munroe spoke in support of the Motion

Councillor Hamblett spoke in support of the Motion

Councillor Williams spoke in support of the Motion

Councillor Moores spoke in support of the Motion

Councillor Barnes spoke in support of the Motion

Councillor Munroe MOVED and Councillor Hamblett SECONDED the MOTION as presented by the Youth Council.

RESOLVED that:

Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to write to the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP; The Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP, Secretary of State for Education; The Rt Hon Bridget Philipson MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and the three Members of Parliament representing the Oldham Borough; Jim McMahon MP, Debbie Abrahams MP and Angela Rayner MP to ask them to lobby parliament to extend the offer of the Holiday Activities and Food programme to all young people not just those on free school meals to support all those impacted by the current cost of living crisis.