Holiday activities and food
HAF Fun Pompey is part of the UK Government’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.
HAF provides healthy meals and fun and rewarding activities during the school holidays for children aged 5-16 who receive benefits related free school meals.
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What is HAF?
The government’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme offers valuable support to families on lower incomes, giving them the opportunity to access rewarding activities alongside healthy meals over the school holidays.
In November 2020, the government announced the significant expansion of the programme. Portsmouth City Council registered to participate and were delighted to be allocated funding by the Department for Education. Our programme is called HAF Fun Pompey. All local authorities have been given funding based on their benefits related free school meal (FSM) numbers.
We provide healthy meals and fun activities during the spring, summer, and winter school holidays (not including half terms) for children aged 5-16 who receive benefits-related free school meals.
In August 2025, the Government announced a three‑year funding settlement for HAF as part of the Children, Youth and Families Grant, covering 2026–2029.
From September 2026 (the start of the 2026 to 2027 academic year), the government will extend free school meals to all children from households receiving Universal Credit. The government have confirmed that eligibility for HAF will not expand in line with this change. To be eligible for HAF, households must meet the existing free school meal threshold (known as targeted free school meals). Find out more about this change in the FAQs below, and on the UK Government website.
Your child may be eligible for free school meals if you receive any of the following:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)
Families must have been granted benefits related free school meals to have a funded, free space on the HAF Fun Pompey programme. You can check your eligibility and apply through free school meals, Portsmouth.
The government’s universal free school meals offer is open to all children in years Reception through to Year 2. If your child receives free school meals through this offer, they are not eligible for the HAF programme.
The HAF programme funding provides free activities only for those children aged 5-16 who receive benefits related free school meals – more information about what this means is available in the question above.
Some of our providers also offer pay as you go places – please note these are booked separately to HAF-funded activities.
From September 2026 (the start of the 2026 to 2027 academic year), the government will extend Free School Meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit. It has been confirmed that eligibility for HAF will not expand in line with this change.
There will be two types of benefits-based free school meals:
- targeted free school meals – continue for households receiving Universal Credit with annual earnings of £7,400 or less
- expanded free school meals – new category for households receiving Universal Credit, who have a household income of more than £7,400
Children who receive targeted FSM are eligible for free places on Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) schemes. Children who receive free school meals under the expanded Universal Credit criteria will not be eligible for HAF. More information about this is available on the UK Government website.
If you are unsure if your child is eligible for HAF Fun Pompey, please contact us at haf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk and we will do our best to help.
Transitional protections for free school meals have been in place since 2018. The Government have announced that the new free school meals entitlement from September 2026 will see an end to ‘protected’ FSM status.
If your child currently accesses HAF because of FSM protections, they will no longer be eligible for HAF after the 2026 summer holiday. To continue accessing HAF, children must meet the eligibility criteria. You can read more about this on the UK Government website.
If you are unsure what this means for your family, please contact us at haf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Families may be eligible for tax free childcare or the childcare costs element of Universal Credit, through which families may be able to claim back up to 85% of their childcare costs.
Read more about Universal Credit and childcare.
Some of the providers are Ofsted registered and can also take childcare vouchers for their pay as you go spaces if applicable.
If your booking has been declined, this means that unfortunately, we have been unable to match your eligibility with our data and cannot offer a free, funded space.
Our booking system, Eequ, includes an automatic eligibility check against the benefits related free school meal data we receive from the Education team.
If you think this is an error and you have applied for benefits related free school meals, please contact us by emailing haf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
If you have previously booked with HAF Fun Pompey in 2021 and 2022, the provider(s) should have included a step in the booking where you declare you are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.
It may be your circumstances have changed and you are no longer eligible. Our booking system, Eequ, includes an automatic eligibility check against the benefits-related free school meal data we receive from the Education team.
If you think this is an error and you have applied for benefits-related free school meals, please contact us by emailing haf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
The Department for Education fund all local authorities to provide access to free holiday activities and nutritious food for children who receive benefits-related free school meals. The aim of the HAF programme is to provide free nutritious meals, enriching activities, and safe environments for eligible children during the school holidays, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning.
You can read more about the HAF programme on the UK Government website.
The Department for Education allow a certain amount to fund non-free school meals families who are deemed vulnerable. We work closely with professional services to manage these referrals. These services can include schools, family safeguarding teams, family hubs, healthcare and social workers, and SENCOs.
Our HAF programme is funded for families living in PO1-PO6 and children/young people who attend schools in Portsmouth.
If you live outside of these postcode areas, please check your local authority’s HAF programme – some local programmes are:
If you have a question that hasn’t been answered here, please email haf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk and we will do our best to help with any queries.
HAF Pay As You Go
Looking for activities? Need childcare during the school holidays?
During the school holidays, some of our HAF providers offer pay as you go spaces on their activities throughout the city.
Please note, providers choose their own booking system to manage pay as you go spaces.
There are other providers, who are not hosting HAF Fun Pompey activities through Department for Education funding, who also offer pay as you go activities in the school holidays.
