TITLE:
Implementing Holiday Provision Programmes: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Senior Stakeholders
AUTHORS:
Emily Mann, Clara Widdison, Margaret Anne Defeyter
KEYWORDS:
School Holidays, Holiday Provision, Holiday Clubs, Food Insecurity, Child
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.7,
July
27,
2020
ABSTRACT: Holiday provision is a grassroots response to
support low-income families during the school holidays with the provision of
free food and activities. This qualitative study investigates the views of
senior stakeholders (N = 15) who are responsible for facilitating or implementing programmes of
holiday provision to determine the need for holiday provision, examples of best
practice for delivering programmes of holiday provision and barriers for
effective delivery. The findings identified a need for holiday provision as a
result of cuts to welfare provision and local authority services which have
increased pressures on household budgets. Senior stakeholders advocated a
collaborative and flexible model of holiday provision and identified the need
to utilize and develop existing community assets to deliver this provision,
Yet, senior stakeholders acknowledged
multiple barriers of delivery related to cost, sustainability and organizational
capacity and, in the absence of a strategic response and sustained funding by
national, regional and local governments, there are questions of whether this
type of approach truly addresses and targets all of the most vulnerable in
society.