GB-Watford: Play Scheme - School Holiday Activity Programme

Watford Borough Council is seeking a Service Provider to operate and run a Play Scheme and Activity Programme within Watford for Children during the Easter and Summer Holidays.

The Wat's On program offers open access activities for 5 to 15 year olds in both Easter and summer school holidays. It was launched in Easter 2017, and achieved more than 2000 attendances to its varied activity sessions. We aim to keep children safe at the same time as providing challenges through free open access multi skilled activities, adventurous and risky play and creative sessions. (Open access means that we can only supervise children and young people while they are on site and participating in the activities. Participants cannot be confined to the grounds or prevented from coming and going as they please).

In Easter 2023 there were 35 sessions delivered across the borough in 12 locations. 2,543 children attended these sessions which was an increase of 192% from 2021.

Summer 2023 there were 91 sessions delivered across 14 locations with 7,587 children attending an increase of 6.9% from the previous summer.

Sessions included adventure play, stage school, arts & crafts, film school, food tech, gymnastics, games & coding, science lab and water wars.

The proposed contract is for three years confirmed on an annual basis.

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.