Haringey London Borough Council is one of 32 in the capital of London. Haringey is divided into 21 wards and is a highly diverse borough with high levels of deprivation, particularly in the north east of the borough.
HAF programme
Haringey London Borough Council is one of 32 in the capital of London. Haringey is divided into 21 wards and is a highly diverse borough with high levels of deprivation, particularly in the north east of the borough. As a council representing more than 250,000 residents, Haringey is committed to creating an environment with strong, resilient and connected communities that nurtures residents to live well and achieve their potential.
Whilst the full extent of the impact of COVID-19 has yet to be fully realised, Haringey’s local economy has been severely impacted in terms of (un)employment and business viability. Children and young people have been disproportionately disadvantaged than others in terms of mental health, access to education and employment.
Haringey ran a holiday programme before the launch of the HAF programme – running activities (some free) across the borough. HAF was a complimentary addition to what was already running and enabled Haringey to extend their support criteria and increase the number of families they could support.
There were a couple of challenges for the council; to ensure they met the full requirements for the HAF programme, thereby enabling them to access the additional funding; and to quickly and easily directly identify and support free school meal (FSM) eligible pupils (who were therefore HAF eligible).
Through discussions with other local authorities, they reviewed several solutions and, having been directly contacted by Evouchers, the voucher provider’s ability to directly identify and target FSM eligible children through sister company Wonde’s data management integration with schools meant support could be provided with relative speed and ease.
Haringey Council has used the HAF ‘Lite’ solution from Evouchers for Christmas, Easter and the forthcoming Summer holidays to provide vouchers directly to eligible families. Since launch, they have seen a steady increase in uptake and are now supporting over 10,000 eligible children in the run up to the summer holidays. Thanks to the council’s significant work around vulnerable families, and the extension of free school meal (FSM) criteria, they are now able to increase the number of families they can support.
The high percentage of schools using Wonde already was of huge benefit, making the introduction of the provision smooth for schools. Through the Wonde platform, schools can access the Evouchers HAF solution, pulling through all eligible children from their MIS at the touch of a button.
There were minor teething problems with schools confusing FSM and HAF voucher solutions (both available through Evouchers) however Haringey were able to view, manage and amend these ordering errors via their Evouchers platform quickly and effectively.
The positive uptake has been partly due to parents already being familiar with the Evouchers solution (due to the FSM scheme) and therefore the recognition and adoption of HAF was high. Erica (Project Manager at Haringey) says; “Parents’ response rates are really good. We know families won’t ignore communication from Evouchers and are aware of how the platform works. We know engagement will be high.”
Challenges exist over the delay of some schools communicating the HAF solution which in turn means families may miss out on key activities or prime time slots. Moving forward, the council is considering mass communication directly to families so notification and availability is more fair.
There are some schools in Haringey who have not installed Evouchers and therefore are not making use of the HAF provision. The benefit of the platform is that the council can monitor this and directly target those schools, ensuring any problems or concerns are addressed.
Erica says “HAF has been amazing in addressing the increased need among our families. The requirement to engage with activities can now be realised. However our work doesn’t stop there. We support Early Years too and particularly children with SEND who can be excluded from certain activities because of the needs they have. This is something we are looking to support outside of HAF.”
“There is a huge amount of satisfaction in seeing our young people on the HAF programme – enjoying themselves, making friends and learning new skills. That’s what’s so rewarding.”
“Parents’ response rates are really good. We know families won’t ignore communication from Evouchers and are aware of how the platform works. We know engagement will be high.”
