A question of justice: are holiday clubs serving the most deprived communities in England?

Abstract

In response to the problem of holiday hunger, hundreds of local 'holiday clubs' have recently been established across the UK. This research examines the spatial relationship between income, childhood deprivation, ethnicity and holiday clubs across 32,844 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in England to determine if these clubs are currently operating in an inclusive fashion. Data on the location of holiday clubs comes from a national survey. Binary logistic regression results suggest that holiday clubs are likely to operate in economically disadvantaged areas. At the same time, clubs are not distributed equally by ethnicity. That is, holiday clubs operated by voluntary organizations are more likely to be situated in LSOAs that are disproportionately white and English\British and less likely to be situated in LSOAs that are disproportionately ethnic minority. This finding has important implications for the pursuit of holiday clubs as a policy mechanism for addressing access to food in light of the state's failure to adequately feed all of the country's children.

Food Insecurity in Advanced Capitalist Nations: A Review

“…Second, the nutritional quality of the food is often low because the majority of the food is unwanted donated food and food aid providers often have little control over what is donated [98]. Third, availability of food aid can vary from area to area, leaving some areas of high deprivation with few available options [99,100]. Fourth, supply of food aid is often limited and food aid organizations often restrict the frequency that people can come and use the resources.…”

Hunger in the primary school setting: evidence, impacts and solutions according to school staff in the North East of England, UK

“…In response to the lack of food and activity provision for families during the school holidays, there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of holiday clubs providing meals and activities through school and community venues across the UK during the school holidays (Mann et al, 2018). Moreover, the School Holiday (Meals and Activities) Bill was recently presented to UK Parliament calling for Government intervention to ensure that meals and activities are made available to children and families during the school holidays when free school meals are not available.…”

Implementing Holiday Provision Programmes: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Senior Stakeholders

“…A report published by Feeding Britain (2017) estimates that three million children are at risk of experiencing holiday hunger: one million children from families receiving benefits and a further two million children from families experiencing in-work poverty (Forsey, 2017). In response to the risk of families experiencing holiday hunger, hundreds of holiday clubs have established in deprived communities across the UK with the aim of providing food to children at risk of experiencing food insecurity during the school holidays (Forsey, 2017;Graham et al, 2016;Mann et al, 2018). Nevertheless, low-income families face not only the risk of food insecurity during the school holidays but also experience the challenge of sourcing and accessing adequate and affordable childcare and play provision (Cottell & Fiaferana, 2018).…”

“…In the absence of any statutory provision to govern the implementation and delivery of holiday provision, local authorities and the third sector have established programmes of holiday provision, albeit in a piecemeal and fragmented manner (Forsey, 2017;Mann et al, 2018). Holiday clubs are becoming more prevalent (Mann & Defeyter, 2017) and through this organic development of holiday provision, there exists different models of holiday provision delivery: individual holiday clubs; small networks of schools and community groups delivering holiday provision and receiving grants from local authorities, foundations or housing associations; and larger networks of holiday provision clubs that are supplied with food and funds from charities, local authorities or regional government (Forsey, 2017).…”

“…More recently central and regional governments have pledged funding for holiday provision programmes: in 2019 the Department for Education provided funding of £9m to programmes across 11 geographic areas of England to provide food and activities to 50,000 children through the Holiday Activities and Food Programme; the Scottish Government announced a fund of £3m to support affordable after-school and holiday childcare for low-income families; and the Welsh Government provided funding of £100,000 to pilot holiday clubs across 13 local authorities in Wales. Despite these funding initiatives, holiday provision is not universal and is unevenly distributed among disadvantaged communities and, as yet, there is no best practice guide on what works best in holiday club settings (Mann et al, 2018).…”