PME for the Provision of Application Portal for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme

Leicester City Council are commencing a formal process to obtain market intelligence on offerings in the market on both commercial off the shelf solutions as well as any build offerings in the MS Power platform (or alternate) in relation to an online booking provision for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme.

The Department for Education (DfE) provide funding to local authorities, to enable them to run Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programmes during the school holidays, (Easter, Summer and Winter).

These programmes provide activities and food to all children aged 5-17 whose parents are on means tested benefits and are currently in receipt of benefits related free school meals (FSM). There are currently 15500 or so children within the Leicester City Councils jurisdiction who are entitled to FSM. This number is continuously increasing.

The council is looking to create a self-service online booking provision for the HAF programme, allowing parents to book and manage their child's place on these sessions, additionally the Council would like the 3rd party providers of these sessions to be able to create and manage their own events (subject to approval), including specifying venue, times, pre-requisites etc.

The Council would like to understand what options may exist within the market, and whether vendors can meet our key requirements and suggest other elements of a solution which could improve the way in which the council currently manages its HAF programme.